Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Declares $0.75 Quarterly Dividend

Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 21st,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of 0.75 per share by the construction company on Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th.

Meritage Homes has a dividend payout ratio of 14.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Meritage Homes to earn $21.47 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 14.0%.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of MTH traded up $6.76 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $184.44. The stock had a trading volume of 388,063 shares, compared to its average volume of 411,087. The firm has a market cap of $6.67 billion, a PE ratio of 8.04 and a beta of 1.82. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $192.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $184.19. Meritage Homes has a one year low of $137.70 and a one 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.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $205.00 to $235.00 in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Wedbush upgraded Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $160.00 to $195.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Raymond James downgraded Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $218.17.

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.