Vanguard Group Inc. Buys 36,531 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 7,174,183 shares of the construction company’s stock after acquiring an additional 36,531 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.12% of Martin Marietta Materials worth $3,705,466,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MLM. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. bought a new position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new position in Martin Marietta Materials during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Martin Marietta Materials during the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in Martin Marietta Materials during the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 91.9% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 71 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. 95.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $563.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $657.00 to $622.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Stephens lowered their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com downgraded Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $645.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $628.64.

Martin Marietta Materials Trading Up 2.8 %

Shares of MLM stock opened at $490.51 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 2.50 and a quick ratio of 1.40. The company has a market cap of $29.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.17, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.89. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 1-year low of $448.50 and a 1-year high of $633.23. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $510.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $539.41.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The construction company reported $4.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.62 by $0.17. Martin Marietta Materials had a return on equity of 12.11% and a net margin of 30.54%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.79 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. Martin Marietta Materials’s payout ratio is 9.77%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Michael J. Petro purchased 550 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $454.37 per share, with a total value of $249,903.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,985 shares in the company, valued at $4,082,514.45. The trade was a 6.52 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Donald A. Mccunniff sold 1,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $475.00, for a total transaction of $632,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,523 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,673,425. This represents a 27.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.68% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.