Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) Shares Purchased by Marietta Investment Partners LLC

Marietta Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 11,654 shares of the construction company’s stock after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Martin Marietta Materials accounts for about 1.4% of Marietta Investment Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Marietta Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $6,314,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,170,166 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $3,577,268,000 after purchasing an additional 69,701 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 114.3% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 980,699 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $602,092,000 after buying an additional 523,038 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 623,681 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $337,903,000 after buying an additional 12,759 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 465,703 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $252,318,000 after buying an additional 11,749 shares during the period. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 374,811 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $203,073,000 after buying an additional 3,598 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup cut their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $658.00 to $646.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Loop Capital cut their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $630.00 to $615.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Stephens cut their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $650.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $610.00 to $657.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $660.00 to $665.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $629.82.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE MLM opened at $546.29 on Monday. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 1 year low of $389.90 and a 1 year high of $626.67. The firm has a market cap of $33.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.19, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.86. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $540.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $566.68.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its earnings results 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 return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 30.80%. The business had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.79 per share. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. This is a positive change from Martin Marietta Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. Martin Marietta Materials’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.