Virtu Financial LLC Buys 725 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Virtu Financial LLC raised its stake in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 13.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,252 shares of the construction company’s stock after purchasing an additional 725 shares during the quarter. Virtu Financial LLC’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $3,229,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC increased its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 15.5% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 25,242 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $13,037,000 after buying an additional 3,384 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 18.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 8,220 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $4,914,000 after purchasing an additional 1,286 shares in the last quarter. RMR Wealth Builders boosted its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 431.3% during the fourth quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 2,391 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,235,000 after acquiring an additional 1,941 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 2,448.1% during the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,376 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $741,000 after acquiring an additional 1,322 shares in the last quarter. Finally, InTrack Investment Management Inc raised its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 33.9% in the fourth quarter. InTrack Investment Management Inc now owns 3,446 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,784,000 after buying an additional 872 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MLM has been the subject of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus began coverage on shares of Martin Marietta Materials in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $559.00 price objective for the company. Wolfe Research raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $563.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. HSBC raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $690.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $670.00 to $610.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Martin Marietta Materials from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $640.00 to $560.00 in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Martin Marietta Materials currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $628.64.

Martin Marietta Materials Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of MLM stock opened at $477.49 on Friday. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $448.50 and a fifty-two week high of $633.23. The stock has a market cap of $29.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.77, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $511.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $539.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 2.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The construction company reported $4.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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, analysts forecast that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.79 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.77%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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.