SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) _ Meritage Homes Corp. (MTH) on Wednesday reported first-quarter profit of $217.3 million.

On a per-share basis, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company said it had profit of $5.79.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $4.68 per share.

The homebuilder posted revenue of $1.29 billion in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.25 billion.

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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