State of Tennessee Department of Treasury Lowers Position in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

State of Tennessee Department of Treasury decreased its position in shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) by 8.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,959 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 1,531 shares during the quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $2,455,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Meritage Homes by 33.1% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 314,323 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $48,349,000 after acquiring an additional 78,087 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 235.1% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 677 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $104,000 after purchasing an additional 475 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 14,589 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,244,000 after purchasing an additional 679 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 47,699 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $7,337,000 after buying an additional 4,397 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Townsquare Capital LLC boosted its stake in Meritage Homes by 84.6% during the fourth quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 3,006 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $462,000 after buying an additional 1,378 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Meritage Homes from $126.00 to $118.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com cut shares of Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of Meritage Homes from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Meritage Homes from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $103.00 price objective on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $106.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meritage Homes news, Chairman Steven J. Hilton bought 11,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $74.51 per share, for a total transaction of $819,610.00. Following the acquisition, the chairman now directly owns 811,192 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,441,915.92. The trade was a 1.37 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Alison Sasser sold 676 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.03, for a total transaction of $48,692.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 5,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $427,353.99. This represents a 10.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,683 shares of company stock worth $122,547 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes Trading Down 1.5 %

MTH opened at $67.92 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.61. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $69.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $80.94. Meritage Homes Co. has a one year low of $59.27 and a one year high of $106.99. The stock has a market cap of $4.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.19 and a beta of 1.69.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The construction company reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.71 by ($0.02). Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 15.90% and a net margin of 12.29%. The business had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Meritage Homes Co. will post 9.44 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th were given a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.53%. This is a boost from Meritage Homes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 17th. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is 14.06%.

Meritage Homes 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.