Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) Price Target Raised to $576.00

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) had its price target hoisted by Morgan Stanley from $561.00 to $576.00 in a research report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the construction company’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Raymond James decreased their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $600.00 to $597.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. UBS Group cut Martin Marietta Materials from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $491.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Barclays cut their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $645.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Stephens decreased 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 report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Martin Marietta Materials from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $640.00 to $560.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Martin Marietta Materials currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $599.69.

Martin Marietta Materials Price Performance

Martin Marietta Materials stock opened at $536.04 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $487.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $529.84. Martin Marietta Materials has a 12 month low of $441.95 and a 12 month high of $633.23. The company has a market capitalization of $32.32 billion, a PE ratio of 16.58, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 2.50, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The construction company reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.88 by $0.02. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 30.54% and a return on equity of 12.11%. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.36 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.93 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Martin Marietta Materials will post 19.53 EPS for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.79 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.59%. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.20%.

Insider Transactions at Martin Marietta Materials

In other news, EVP Donald A. Mccunniff sold 1,332 shares of Martin Marietta Materials 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,523 shares in the company, 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 through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Michael J. Petro bought 550 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $454.37 per share, for a total transaction of $249,903.50. Following the acquisition, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,985 shares in the company, valued at $4,082,514.45. The trade was a 6.52 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.68% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Martin Marietta Materials

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 76.2% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in Martin Marietta Materials during the 3rd quarter valued at $197,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 23.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,918 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,564,000 after acquiring an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. Finally, One Wealth Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the 4th quarter worth $226,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

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.