Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Cut to “Market Perform” at Raymond James

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) was downgraded by analysts at Raymond James from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report released on Thursday, FinViz reports.

MTH has been the topic of several other research reports. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Meritage Homes from $219.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Wedbush raised shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $160.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $205.00 to $235.00 in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meritage Homes currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $218.17.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of Meritage Homes stock opened at $186.62 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $195.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $183.05. Meritage Homes has a 1-year low of $129.42 and a 1-year high of $213.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The company has a market cap of $6.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.45 and a beta of 1.82.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.63% and a return on equity of 16.89%. Meritage Homes’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $5.98 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meritage Homes will post 21.16 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meritage Homes

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MTH. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 2.5% in the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 718,607 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $116,307,000 after acquiring an additional 17,843 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP boosted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 13.5% in the 1st quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 490,660 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $86,091,000 after purchasing an additional 58,350 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 0.8% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 315,931 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $51,133,000 after purchasing an additional 2,460 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 734.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 272,122 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $55,804,000 after acquiring an additional 239,511 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Meritage Homes by 9.4% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 244,776 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $50,196,000 after purchasing an additional 21,092 shares in the last quarter. 98.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.