Insider Selling: Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) CAO Sells $11,596.80 in Stock

Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) CAO Alison Sasser sold 151 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.80, for a total transaction of $11,596.80. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,907 shares in the company, valued at approximately $684,057.60. This trade represents a 1.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Meritage Homes Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE MTH opened at $75.38 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $72.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $72.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.93, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.48. Meritage Homes Corporation has a 52-week low of $59.27 and a 52-week high of $84.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The construction company reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.51 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 9.28% and a net margin of 7.73%.Meritage Homes’s revenue was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $4.72 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Meritage Homes Corporation will post 9.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 17th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. This is a positive change from Meritage Homes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 17th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is 27.22%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meritage Homes

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MTH. Salomon & Ludwin LLC grew its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 63.9% during the fourth quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 372 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC increased its stake in Meritage Homes by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 10,627 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $699,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Archer Investment Corp raised its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 11.4% in the third quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 1,559 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $113,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 13,559 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $892,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 25.7% during the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 808 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore set a $77.00 price objective on shares of Meritage Homes and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. UBS Group set a $95.00 target price on Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Meritage Homes in a report on Monday, December 29th. Citizens Jmp assumed coverage on Meritage Homes in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. They set a “market outperform” rating and a $90.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.63.

Meritage Homes Company Profile

Meritage Homes Corporation is a national homebuilder and residential developer headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. Founded in 1985 as Winchester Homes and later rebranded to Meritage Homes, the company specializes in designing, constructing and selling single?family detached and attached homes. With a focus on energy efficiency and sustainable building practices, Meritage Homes markets its properties under the GreenSmart program, which integrates high?performance features aimed at reducing long?term energy and water consumption for homebuyers.

The company’s core activities encompass land acquisition, residential community planning, home design, construction management and real estate sales.