StockNews.com Upgrades Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) to “Hold”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report released on Tuesday.

MLM has been the subject of a number of other reports. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $650.00 to $630.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Loop Capital cut their price target on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $630.00 to $615.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $700.00 to $670.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 9th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $660.00 to $665.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $658.00 to $646.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $629.82.

Martin Marietta Materials Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of MLM stock opened at $534.04 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.82, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.91. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $541.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $567.97. Martin Marietta Materials has a 1 year low of $389.90 and a 1 year high of $626.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.86 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The construction company reported $4.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.36 by ($0.60). Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 30.80% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.83 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Martin Marietta Materials will post 19.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.79 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. This is an increase from Martin Marietta Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Martin Marietta Materials

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MLM. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Martin Marietta Materials during the fourth quarter valued at about $308,705,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 114.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 980,699 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $602,092,000 after acquiring an additional 523,038 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 4,244.5% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 277,182 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $138,289,000 after acquiring an additional 270,802 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 306.8% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 161,690 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $80,668,000 after acquiring an additional 121,941 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 247.5% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 148,827 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $80,634,000 after purchasing an additional 106,002 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

About Martin Marietta Materials

Martin Marietta Materials, Inc, a natural resource-based building materials company, supplies aggregates and heavy-side building materials to the construction industry in the United States and internationally. It offers crushed stone, sand, and gravel products; ready mixed concrete and asphalt; paving products and services; and Portland and specialty cement for use in the infrastructure projects, and nonresidential and residential construction markets, as well as in the railroad, agricultural, utility, and environmental industries.