Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Releases FY24 Earnings Guidance

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Wednesday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $19.20-20.70 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $17.84. The company issued revenue guidance of $6.0-6.2 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $6.07 billion. Meritage Homes also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 19.200-20.700 EPS.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on MTH shares. Zelman & Associates upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Wedbush downgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and decreased their target price for the company from $155.00 to $148.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com cut Meritage Homes from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Meritage Homes from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Meritage Homes from $151.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meritage Homes currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $172.67.

Meritage Homes Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of MTH traded down $3.50 on Wednesday, hitting $154.69. 452,787 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 399,753. Meritage Homes has a one year low of $109.23 and a one year high of $179.68. The company has a market capitalization of $5.62 billion, a PE ratio of 7.77 and a beta of 1.77. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $159.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $152.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The construction company reported $5.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.18 by $0.20. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 17.03% and a net margin of 12.03%. The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.52 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meritage Homes will post 17.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is an increase from Meritage Homes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is 15.06%.

Insider Transactions at Meritage Homes

In other news, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 2,500 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.79, for a total transaction of $406,975.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 100,266 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,322,302.14. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Meritage Homes news, COO Clinton Szubinski sold 797 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.62, for a total transaction of $121,638.14. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 5,234 shares in the company, valued at approximately $798,813.08. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.79, for a total transaction of $406,975.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 100,266 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,322,302.14. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,998 shares of company stock worth $635,171 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

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.