Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Cuts Stake in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System cut its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 2.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,400 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $1,830,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MLM. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 114.3% during the first 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 in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 247.5% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 148,827 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $80,634,000 after purchasing an additional 106,002 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc purchased a new position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the first quarter worth $41,142,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 682.5% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 75,045 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $40,393,000 after buying an additional 65,454 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 46,996.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 56,516 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $30,420,000 after buying an additional 56,396 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Stephens dropped their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $650.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Truist Financial cut 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. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $560.00 to $515.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Martin Marietta Materials has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $621.50.

Martin Marietta Materials Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MLM opened at $604.71 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $36.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.38, a P/E/G ratio of 4.62 and a beta of 0.91. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a twelve month low of $404.93 and a twelve month high of $626.67. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $538.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $555.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $5.60 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were given a dividend of $0.79 per share. This is a boost from Martin Marietta Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. Martin Marietta Materials’s payout ratio is presently 9.60%.

Martin Marietta Materials Company Profile

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.