Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Shares Purchased by Westfield Capital Management Co. LP

Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its position in shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH - Free Report) by 26.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 483,159 shares of the construction company's stock after acquiring an additional 102,502 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP owned about 1.34% of Meritage Homes worth $99,081,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 13.6% in the third quarter. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC now owns 3,029 shares of the construction company's stock worth $621,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 70.9% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,366 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $690,000 after purchasing an additional 1,396 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in Meritage Homes by 49.6% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 73,469 shares of the construction company's stock worth $15,066,000 after purchasing an additional 24,362 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Meritage Homes by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 489,035 shares of the construction company's stock worth $100,286,000 after purchasing an additional 5,732 shares in the last quarter. Finally, L & S Advisors Inc purchased a new stake in Meritage Homes during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,338,000. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of MTH traded up $6.76 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $184.44. 388,079 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 481,199. Meritage Homes Co. has a twelve month low of $137.70 and a twelve month 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. The company has a market capitalization of $6.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.35 and a beta of 1.82. The business's 50-day moving average price is $192.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $184.31.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.98 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. Meritage Homes's payout ratio is currently 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.