Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Grows Stock Position in Meritage Homes Corporation $MTH

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC raised its position in Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) by 20.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 48,332 shares of the construction company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,199 shares during the quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC owned 0.07% of Meritage Homes worth $3,501,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MTH. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp purchased a new position in shares of Meritage Homes in the second quarter valued at $33,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Meritage Homes by 194.9% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 699 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 462 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in Meritage Homes by 366.8% during the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,489 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $108,000 after buying an additional 1,170 shares during the period. Archer Investment Corp increased its stake in Meritage Homes by 11.4% during the 3rd 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 period. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 201.4% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,736 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $126,000 after buying an additional 1,160 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on MTH. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 28th. Zacks Research lowered Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Meritage Homes in a research note on Monday, December 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Meritage Homes in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Meritage Homes from $78.00 to $76.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meritage Homes presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.33.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Meritage Homes stock opened at $68.11 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. Meritage Homes Corporation has a 12 month low of $59.27 and a 12 month high of $84.74. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $73.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $72.29. The company has a market cap of $4.55 billion, a PE ratio of 10.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.46.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.12. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 7.73% and a return on equity of 9.28%. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $4.72 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. This is a positive change from Meritage Homes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 17th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meritage Homes news, CFO Hilla Sferruzza sold 10,928 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.35, for a total value of $834,352.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 124,961 shares in the company, valued at $9,540,772.35. The trade was a 8.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Javier Feliciano sold 3,580 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.24, for a total value of $272,939.20. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 44,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,425,844.40. This trade represents a 7.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 47,622 shares of company stock valued at $3,640,273 over the last quarter. Insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes 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.