Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Receives “Neutral” Rating from JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $197.00 price target on the construction company’s stock, down from their prior price target of $220.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 11.07% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on MTH. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Wedbush raised shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $160.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Raymond James cut Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $215.14.

Meritage Homes Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of Meritage Homes stock opened at $177.36 on Friday. Meritage Homes has a 1 year low of $147.77 and a 1 year high of $213.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The company has a market capitalization of $6.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.03 and a beta of 1.82. The business has a 50-day moving average of $187.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $184.87.

Meritage Homes shares are scheduled to split before the market opens on Friday, January 3rd. The 2-1 split was announced on Monday, November 25th. The newly created shares will be payable to shareholders after the market closes on Tuesday, December 31st.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.29. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.63% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $5.98 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Meritage Homes

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. CWM LLC lifted its position in Meritage Homes by 15.5% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 433 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $89,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 53.6% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 172 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. boosted its stake in Meritage Homes by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 2,288 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $370,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in Meritage Homes by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,719 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $558,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 1.1% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 10,126 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,639,000 after buying an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes Company Profile

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.