Fred Alger Management LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Fred Alger Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 29.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 144,739 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 59,241 shares during the quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $77,906,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 664 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $360,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 0.9% during the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 2,126 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 13.6% during the second quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 167 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $90,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. TFG Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 3.7% in the second quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 555 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $300,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co increased its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 3.0% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 680 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $368,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MLM has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $610.00 to $657.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 26th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Martin Marietta Materials from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $515.00 to $640.00 in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group started coverage on Martin Marietta Materials in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $730.00 price target for the company. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $658.00 to $646.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $644.46.

Martin Marietta Materials Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE MLM opened at $595.60 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.40 billion, a PE ratio of 18.56, a P/E/G ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $570.11 and its 200 day moving average is $556.63. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a twelve month low of $456.83 and a twelve month high of $633.23. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $5.91 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $6.41 by ($0.50). The firm had revenue of $1.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.94 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 30.47% and a return on equity of 12.53%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $6.94 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 17.58 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 Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.79 per share. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Martin Marietta Materials’s payout ratio is currently 9.85%.

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.