Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Analysts

Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) has earned an average rating of “Buy” from the sixteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, fourteen have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $634.36.

MLM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James dropped their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. HSBC upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $690.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $563.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $515.00 to $640.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

Shares of MLM opened at $489.30 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 2.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The company’s fifty day moving average is $513.52 and its 200-day moving average is $540.64. The firm has a market cap of $29.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.89. Martin Marietta Materials has a 12 month low of $448.50 and a 12 month high of $633.23.

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

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.79 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Michael J. Petro acquired 550 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $454.37 per share, for a total transaction of $249,903.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,082,514.45. This trade represents a 6.52 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Donald A. Mccunniff sold 1,332 shares of the business’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 approximately $1,673,425. The trade was a 27.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Martin Marietta Materials

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,174,183 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $3,705,466,000 after acquiring an additional 36,531 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 23.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,678,425 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,441,663,000 after acquiring an additional 506,705 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 15.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,819,744 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $939,898,000 after acquiring an additional 191,043 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,562,146 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $808,005,000 after acquiring an additional 148,065 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.