Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eleven ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $84.5714.

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group set a $101.00 price target on Meritage Homes and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, November 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Meritage Homes from $60.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 10th.

Meritage Homes Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of Meritage Homes stock opened at $66.42 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $69.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $71.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.75 and a beta of 1.44. Meritage Homes has a 12-month low of $59.27 and a 12-month high of $84.74. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The construction company reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.71 by ($0.32). Meritage Homes had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 10.37%. The company had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.48 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $5.34 earnings per share. Meritage Homes’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Meritage Homes has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.510-1.700 EPS. Analysts predict that Meritage Homes will post 9.44 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 17th will be given a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 17th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.48%.

Institutional Trading of Meritage Homes

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capital World Investors raised its position in Meritage Homes by 44.3% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 1,987,850 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $143,980,000 after acquiring an additional 609,866 shares in the last quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 1,491,955 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $99,916,000 after purchasing an additional 57,587 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 58.9% during the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,423,013 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $95,299,000 after purchasing an additional 527,265 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Meritage Homes in the 2nd quarter valued at $75,148,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 58.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,058,850 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $75,051,000 after buying an additional 391,297 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

About Meritage Homes

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.