Meritage Homes CORP

MTHdata completeness 75%17 fiscal years on file

Data notes: no data for concept 'revenue'

The thesis, from the filings

Meritage Homes CORP earns about 22% on invested capital, far above its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 87% over 5 years — a real edge showing up in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $28.01 and $107.3 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Revenue
Net income$737.4M1$992.2M2$738.7M3$786.2M3$453M3
Operating cash flow−$152.1M4$405.3M5$355.6M6−$227.6M6$118.3M6
Capital expenditure$25.7M7$27M8$38.2M9$28.7M9$25.7M9
Free cash flow (derived)−$177.8M4$378.3M5$317.4M6−$256.2M6$92.6M6
Total debt
Cash & equivalents$618.3M10$861.6M11$921.2M12$651.6M13$775.2M13
Diluted shares38.2M74.2M74.1M73.3M71.3M

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$728.21
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$63.49
Free cash flow it threw off
$12.97
Debt you’d be carrying

10 shares is a claim on $728.21 of net worth that earned you $63.49 and generated $12.97 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
22% avg · 5y
FY21 30%FY22 32%FY23 20%FY24 18%FY25 10%

It earned about 22% on invested capital, year after year, against a ~9% cost of capital — the footprint of real pricing power. Competition usually drags returns like this back down; here it hasn't.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
+87% shares · 5y

Share count is up 87% over 5 years — owners have been diluted. Worth asking what they got for it.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $28.01 and $107.3 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story; the Graham Number is a stricter floor, not a target.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$28.01
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$92.6M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$29.4
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$92.6M
Earnings Power Value
$107.3
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$738.7M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$102
assumptions (1)
  • grahamMultiplier2250.0%

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years0.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $29.4
The three cases
Bear0.0%$29.4
Base0.0%$29.4
Bull5.0%$33.89

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 0.0%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000833079-24-000015 (NetIncomeLoss)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000833079-25-000021 (NetIncomeLoss)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000833079-26-000010 (NetIncomeLoss)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000833079-24-000015 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000833079-25-000021 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000833079-26-000010 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000833079-24-000015 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000833079-25-000021 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000833079-26-000010 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000833079-23-000022 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000833079-24-000015 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000833079-25-000021 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0000833079-26-000010 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)