The Ledger ResearchPrivate

The Front Office

Scouting report · MTH

Phillippe Lord

  • Chief Executive Officer; director, MTH since 2021-01src

At Meritage since 2008; CEO since January 2021, after six years as COO

—thin record

Not ranked yet

Scouting sheet

as of 24 Sep 2026
Delivers guidance—no promises on the record yet
Answers the question—no call reviewed yet
Capital allocation—company not reviewed yet
Pay design73ebitda, strategic, roic, relative tsr, time only · 96.8% for · 1.79% of net income
Skin in the game—no holding or price on file
Age
52src
In the role
6 yr
Promises scored
0
Hit rate
—
Dodges / 100 answers
—
Airtime on calls
—
Every promise, oldest firstno scored promises yet

What to weigh

Watch 4

  • The FY2025 cash bonus missed on the main metric: Adjusted EBITDA of $708.8m against a $1.0bn target paid 0%, and closings of 15,026 against 16,500 paid 55.3%. The 10%-weighted customer-satisfaction leg paid the 250% maximum. His payout was $1.352m of a $3.25m targetsrc
  • After that year the committee raised his 2026 targets to $4.0m cash (from $3.25m) and $6.0m equity (from about $5.5m)src
  • Severance: 200% multiplier on termination without cause or resignation for good reason, 300% on a change in control (double trigger); no tax gross-upssrc
  • Direct stake is 0.39% of the company (260,389 shares), small next to the co-founder Executive Chairman's 1.3%src

In their favour 1

  • CEO pay ratio 64:1 on $8.1m of 2025 pay; hedging and pledging are banned, and all officers met the ownership guideline (6x salary for the CEO) at 2025 year endsrc

Career

  1. 2021 – now
    Meritage Homessrc
    Chief Executive Officer; director
    Effective 2021-01-01; appointment announced 2020-09-16 (8K-2020-09-16)
  2. 2015 – 2020
    Meritage Homessrc
    Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer
    Appointed 2015-04-01, replacing the departing COO
  3. 2012 – 2015
    Meritage Homessrc
    Western Region President
  4. 2008 – 2012
    Meritage Homessrc
    Vice President of Strategic Operations
    Built the company's strategic operations and market research department (land acquisition, product and pricing analysis), per DEF14A-2026

Undated in the sources

  • Acacia Capital; Centex Homes; Pinnacle West Capitalsrc, Leadership positions (order and years not stated)

Not located: Pre-2008 roles at Acacia Capital, Centex Homes and Pinnacle West Capital are named in the proxy without years or titles; not dated in any source searched

Achievements

  • Rose inside Meritage from building its strategy and market-research group in 2008 to region president, COO and, from 2021, CEOsrc
  • FY2025: record 14,650 home orders and a record 336 actively selling communities, but closings fell to 15,026 from 15,611 and home-closing gross margin fell 520bp to 19.7%src
  • GAAP net income fell from $786.2m (FY2024) to $453.0m (FY2025)src
  • FY2025 buybacks of 4.29m shares (6.0% of the opening count) for $295.0m, with dividends raised to $1.72 a share from $1.50src
  • Say-on-pay passed with 96.8% of for-and-against votes at the May 2026 meetingsrc

Education

  • Colorado State University, Bachelor's Economics and Businesssrc
  • University of Arizona, none (master's coursework completed) Economicssrc

Background

  • Family Neither the 2026 proxy nor the FY2025 10-K makes an Item 401(d) family-relationship statement for him; the 2020 succession 8-K made one only for the new COO. No relatives are named in any related-party disclosuresrc
  • Giving Controls a charitable foundation; gave it 5,000 MTH shares on 2026-02-18, which it sold the same daysrc
  • Other Industry career before Meritage was on the land and capital side (a land banker, Centex, a utility holding company), which fits the land-and-pricing analytics group he founded at Meritagesrc
  • Other Holds his shares through family limited partnerships he controlssrc

The promise ledger

No promise on the record yet: the research routine has not scored this company's guidance.

Sources

10
  1. Filing Meritage Homes DEF 14A, 2026 annual meeting (0000833079-26-000098) · 2026-04-07
  2. Filing Meritage Homes 10-K for FY2025, Information about our Executive Officers (0000833079-26-000010) · 2026-02-13
  3. Filing Meritage Homes 8-K Item 5.07, 2026 annual meeting results (0000833079-26-000113) · 2026-05-21
  4. Filing Meritage Homes 8-K Item 5.02, Hilton retires as CEO, Lord named successor (0000833079-20-000132) · 2020-09-17
  5. Filing Meritage Homes 8-K Item 5.02, new employment agreements for Lord, Hilton, Sferruzza (0000833079-21-000007) · 2021-01-26
  6. Filing Meritage Homes 8-K Item 5.02, Lord appointed EVP & COO (0001193125-15-116016) · 2015-04-01
  7. Filing SEC XBRL companyconcept us-gaap/NetIncomeLoss, CIK 833079 (FY2025 10-K, 0000833079-26-000010) · 2026-02-13
  8. Filing Form 4, Phillippe Lord (reporting CIK 1637869), gift to and sale by his charitable foundation of 2026-02-18 (0000833079-26-000018) · 2026-02-19
  9. Filing Form 4, Phillippe Lord, 10b5-1 sales to cover tax on vesting, 2026-02-23 (0000833079-26-000069) · 2026-02-25
  10. Web search result WebSearch: John Burns Research & Consulting podcast ep. 83, 'How Meritage Homes Drew Up a Blueprint for Success' (search summary: Lord says he started at Centex for a couple of years, then went to a land banker) · 2026-09-24