Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Issues FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) issued an update on its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of 19.200-20.700 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of 17.690. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Meritage Homes also updated its FY24 guidance to $19.20-20.70 EPS.

Meritage Homes Trading Down 2.2 %

MTH stock traded down $3.50 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $154.69. 452,787 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 399,753. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $159.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $152.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.62 billion, a PE ratio of 7.77 and a beta of 1.77. Meritage Homes has a 52-week low of $109.23 and a 52-week high of $179.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77.

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

Meritage Homes Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Alison Sasser sold 355 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.61, for a total value of $54,176.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $132,618.09. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Meritage Homes news, CAO Alison Sasser sold 355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.61, for a total value of $54,176.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 869 shares in the company, valued at $132,618.09. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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 value of $406,975.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 sold 3,998 shares of company stock valued at $635,171 in the last three months. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.