Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Releases FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) issued an update on its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of 19.200-20.700 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of 17.690. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Meritage Homes also updated its FY24 guidance to $19.20-20.70 EPS.

Meritage Homes Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE:MTH traded down $3.50 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $154.69. 452,787 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 399,753. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $159.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $152.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The stock has a market cap of $5.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.77 and a beta of 1.77. Meritage Homes has a fifty-two week low of $109.23 and a fifty-two week high of $179.68.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The construction company reported $5.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.18 by $0.20. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 17.03% and a net margin of 12.03%. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.52 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meritage Homes will post 17.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. This is a boost from Meritage Homes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.06%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MTH has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Zelman & Associates upgraded Meritage Homes from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Meritage Homes from $151.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Wedbush cut Meritage Homes from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $148.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Seaport Res Ptn cut Meritage Homes from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut Meritage Homes from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $172.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Alison Sasser sold 355 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.61, for a total transaction of $54,176.55. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 869 shares in the company, valued at approximately $132,618.09. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Alison Sasser sold 355 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.61, for a total transaction of $54,176.55. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 869 shares in the company, valued at approximately $132,618.09. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Clinton Szubinski sold 797 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.62, for a total transaction of $121,638.14. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 5,234 shares in the company, valued at $798,813.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,998 shares of company stock worth $635,171 in the last ninety days. 2.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Meritage Homes

Meritage Homes Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs and builds single-family attached and detached homes in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Homebuilding and Financial Services. It acquires and develops land; and constructs, markets, and sells homes for entry-level and first move-up buyers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah, Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.