Van ECK Associates Corp Acquires 6,301 Shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH - Free Report) by 40.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,051 shares of the construction company's stock after purchasing an additional 6,301 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp owned about 0.06% of Meritage Homes worth $4,522,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MTH. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meritage Homes during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 1,033.3% in the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 272 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 248 shares during the period. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in Meritage Homes in the second quarter worth about $61,000. Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes during the 2nd quarter valued at about $64,000. Finally, CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 433 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.44% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently 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 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Raymond James lowered shares of Meritage Homes from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $219.00 to $221.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. Finally, Wedbush raised shares of Meritage Homes from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $160.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $218.17.

Meritage Homes Price Performance

MTH stock traded up $3.13 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $190.77. The company had a trading volume of 401,468 shares, compared to its average volume of 430,826. The company has a market capitalization of $6.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.64 and a beta of 1.82. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $194.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $183.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Meritage Homes Co. has a 12-month low of $129.42 and a 12-month high of $213.98.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The company's revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.98 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meritage Homes's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.58%.

Meritage Homes Company 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.