Brokerages Set Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) Target Price at $619.36

Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $619.36.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MLM. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $650.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $650.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $610.00 to $657.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Loop Capital dropped their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $630.00 to $615.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th.

Institutional Trading of Martin Marietta Materials

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MLM. Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the 1st quarter valued at $22,265,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 182.5% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 73,135 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $44,901,000 after acquiring an additional 47,250 shares during the period. Peak Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,710,000. TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 147,963 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $90,840,000 after acquiring an additional 6,263 shares during the period. Finally, Dohj LLC purchased a new position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the 1st quarter valued at $933,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

Shares of MLM stock opened at $577.53 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $534.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $557.48. The company has a market cap of $35.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.11, a PEG ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.91. Martin Marietta Materials has a 12 month low of $389.90 and a 12 month high of $626.67.

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 the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.83 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $5.60 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Martin Marietta Materials will post 19.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were given a dividend of $0.79 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.55%. This is a positive change from Martin Marietta Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.