Meritage: Offering will build capital - USATODAY.com

Meritage Homes Corp. initiated a public offering Monday for up to 2 million additional shares of stock, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Scottsdale-based homebuilder plans to use proceeds from the offering for working capital and other general purposes, according to a company news release.

The public offering is being managed by Citigroup, JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank Securities and Merrill Lynch, Meritage Homes officials said.

Meritage Homes shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MTH.
Trading activity in the wake of the offering announcement pushed the company's share price up 21cents, or 0.6percent, to close at $35.38, below the 52-week high of $35.45 reached earlier on Monday.

The stock's 52-week low is $13.68 a share.

The homebuilding industry has made a significant comeback in Arizona during the past year, with the current year's new-home permits on pace to double last year's total of about 7,000 permits.

Now that new-home demand is up, some builders have been looking for ways to generate additional capital to produce more homes.

By J. Craig Anderson, The Republic|azcentral.comPosted Jul 10 2012

Meritage: Offering will build capital - USATODAY.com