Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Has $2.05 Million Holdings in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) by 1.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,985 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 192 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $2,048,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of MTH. Earnest Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 2.5% in the 2nd 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. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 valued at $51,133,000 after buying an additional 2,460 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 239,511 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 21,092 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management boosted its stake in Meritage Homes by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 227,300 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $36,789,000 after purchasing an additional 10,900 shares during the period. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of MTH opened at $179.41 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $6.49 billion, a PE ratio of 8.12 and a beta of 1.82. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $193.78 and a 200-day moving average of $184.12. Meritage Homes Co. has a one year low of $137.70 and a one year high of $213.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

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. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $5.98 earnings per share. Meritage Homes’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is 13.58%.

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.