Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Shares Sold by Chartwell Investment Partners LLC

Chartwell Investment Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) by 24.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,051 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 2,288 shares during the period. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $1,446,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Earnest Partners LLC raised its position in 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 purchasing an additional 17,843 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP grew its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 13.5% in the first quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 490,660 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $86,091,000 after acquiring an additional 58,350 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 2,460 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 734.4% during the third quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 272,122 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $55,804,000 after purchasing an additional 239,511 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 9.4% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 244,776 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $50,196,000 after purchasing an additional 21,092 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes Trading Down 4.8 %

Shares of Meritage Homes stock opened at $180.85 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $194.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $183.98. The stock has a market cap of $6.54 billion, a PE ratio of 8.19 and a beta of 1.82. Meritage Homes Co. has a 12-month low of $132.00 and a 12-month 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $5.98 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.58%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on MTH shares. Wolfe Research upgraded 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 note on Wednesday, August 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Raymond James cut shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com cut shares of Meritage Homes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Wedbush raised shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $160.00 to $195.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $218.17.

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.