SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) _ Meritage Homes Corp. (MTH) on Wednesday reported third-quarter earnings of $109.1 million.

On a per-share basis, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company said it had profit of $2.84.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.42 per share.

The homebuilder posted revenue of $1.14 billion in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.08 billion.

Meritage shares have risen 69% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $103.29, a rise of 38% in the last 12 months.

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

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