Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) Shares Acquired by Merit Financial Group LLC

Merit Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 10.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 808 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $418,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 8.0% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 10,228 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $5,542,000 after purchasing an additional 755 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 77.1% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 2,353 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,275,000 after purchasing an additional 1,024 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 2.4% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 51,025 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $27,684,000 after acquiring an additional 1,218 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 60.2% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 11,820 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $6,404,000 after purchasing an additional 4,441 shares during the period. Finally, Insigneo Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 18.3% during the second quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,113 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $615,000 after buying an additional 172 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on MLM shares. HSBC upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $690.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $563.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Loop Capital upped their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $650.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Martin Marietta Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $648.71.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE MLM opened at $548.53 on Friday. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a twelve month low of $490.05 and a twelve month high of $633.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 2.34. The stock has a market cap of $33.53 billion, a PE ratio of 17.09, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $552.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $551.27.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $5.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $6.41 by ($0.50). The firm had revenue of $1.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a return on equity of 12.53% and a net margin of 30.47%. Martin Marietta Materials’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $6.94 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 17.57 EPS for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a $0.79 dividend. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.85%.

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.