Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Sells 8,800 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. $MLM

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund decreased its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 88.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,100 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 8,800 shares during the quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $526,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wayfinding Financial LLC bought a new position in Martin Marietta Materials in the 1st quarter valued at $29,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials during the first quarter worth $30,000. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT acquired a new position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials during the first quarter worth about $30,000. IMA Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in Martin Marietta Materials in the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 193.9% in the first quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 97 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MLM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Raymond James Financial increased their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $600.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $576.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Bank of America raised their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $577.00 to $643.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Martin Marietta Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Martin Marietta Materials from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $548.00 to $634.00 in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $622.63.

Martin Marietta Materials Trading Down 0.5%

NYSE MLM opened at $609.68 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market cap of $36.77 billion, a PE ratio of 33.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.56 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $567.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $530.64. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 52 week low of $441.95 and a 52 week high of $633.23.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The construction company reported $5.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.44 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 11.88%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.76 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This is an increase from Martin Marietta Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.79. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Martin Marietta Materials’s payout ratio is currently 17.53%.

Insider Activity at Martin Marietta Materials

In other news, Director Laree E. Perez sold 1,038 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $613.32, for a total value of $636,626.16. Following the sale, the director directly owned 15,417 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,455,554.44. This represents a 6.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.68% of the stock is owned by company 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.