Citizens Jmp Begins Coverage on Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH)

Equities researchers at Citizens Jmp started coverage on shares of Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage set a “market outperform” rating and a $90.00 price target on the construction company’s stock. Citizens Jmp’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 31.69% from the company’s previous close.

MTH has been the topic of a number of other reports. Zacks Research lowered Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Meritage Homes from $60.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Evercore ISI set a $77.00 target price on shares of Meritage Homes and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Meritage Homes presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $85.63.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

NYSE MTH opened at $68.34 on Wednesday. Meritage Homes has a 1 year low of $59.27 and a 1 year high of $84.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.81 billion, a PE ratio of 6.95 and a beta of 1.48. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $68.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $71.37.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The construction company reported $1.39 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.48 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $5.34 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Meritage Homes has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.510-1.700 EPS. Analysts predict that Meritage Homes will post 9.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meritage Homes

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MTH. Voya Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Meritage Homes by 82.2% in the 1st quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 21,782 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,544,000 after purchasing an additional 9,829 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 8.8% during the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 63,008 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $4,472,000 after purchasing an additional 5,086 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Meritage Homes during the third quarter valued at about $37,477,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its stake in Meritage Homes by 14.0% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 15,424 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,033,000 after buying an additional 1,898 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC bought a new position in Meritage Homes in the second quarter worth about $9,989,000. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.