Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Raises Stake in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,691 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 182 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $4,489,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MLM. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 77.1% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 2,353 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,275,000 after buying an additional 1,024 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew 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 worth $27,684,000 after buying an additional 1,218 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. grew its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 18.1% during the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 19,908 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $10,064,000 after buying an additional 3,047 shares in the last quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC grew its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 804.4% during the second quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC now owns 4,685 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,538,000 after buying an additional 4,167 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 247.5% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 148,827 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $80,634,000 after buying an additional 106,002 shares in the last quarter. 95.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MLM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $515.00 to $640.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Martin Marietta Materials in a report on Thursday, November 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $730.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $657.00 to $622.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $563.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $648.71.

Martin Marietta Materials Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE MLM opened at $548.40 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $550.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $551.52. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 52 week low of $490.05 and a 52 week high of $633.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.34, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market cap of $33.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.09, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.91.

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

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.79 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. Martin Marietta Materials’s payout ratio is currently 9.85%.

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.