Meritage: 4Q Earnings Snapshot

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) _ Meritage Homes Corp. (MTH) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $75.5 million.

The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company said it had profit of $1.91 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.51 per share.

The homebuilder posted revenue of $1.01 billion in the period. Its adjusted revenue was $996.1 million, also beating Street forecasts. Eleven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $953.6 million.

For the year, the company reported profit of $227.3 million, or $5.58 per share. Revenue was reported as $3.47 billion.

Meritage shares have risen 11 percent since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $40.89, a drop of 15 percent in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MTH at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MTH