Clarendon Private LLC Acquires New Shares in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Clarendon Private LLC acquired a new stake in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 742 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $383,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 23.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,678,425 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,441,663,000 after acquiring an additional 506,705 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 15.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,515,441 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,353,936,000 after acquiring an additional 334,605 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 76.2% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,628,701 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $876,648,000 after purchasing an additional 704,460 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 534,801 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $295,397,000 after purchasing an additional 9,908 shares during the period. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 54.2% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 467,782 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $251,784,000 after buying an additional 164,503 shares during the period. 95.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on MLM. Barclays upped their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $595.00 to $645.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered 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. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Loop Capital lifted their price target on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $515.00 to $640.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Martin Marietta Materials presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $648.71.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

Shares of Martin Marietta Materials stock opened at $548.40 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $550.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $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 market cap of $33.52 billion, a PE ratio of 17.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 2.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $5.91 earnings per share (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 analysts’ expectations of $1.94 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $6.94 earnings per share. Martin Marietta Materials’s revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 17.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a $0.79 dividend. 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 presently 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.