Toronto Dominion Bank Trims Stake in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Toronto Dominion Bank lessened its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 29.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 22,668 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 9,324 shares during the quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $12,201,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,734 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $939,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment increased its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 39.8% in the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 2,038 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 580 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 5.6% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 18,266 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $9,832,000 after purchasing an additional 968 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 158.2% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 43,952 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $23,657,000 after purchasing an additional 26,929 shares during the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 3.6% during the third quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 570 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $307,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MLM. 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 report on Wednesday. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $595.00 to $645.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Loop Capital increased their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. BNP Paribas lowered Martin Marietta Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on Martin Marietta Materials in a report on Thursday, November 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $730.00 target price for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $655.77.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of Martin Marietta Materials stock opened at $550.92 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 2.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $33.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.17, a PEG ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $578.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $555.97. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 52-week low of $479.67 and a 52-week high of $633.23.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $5.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $6.41 by ($0.50). Martin Marietta Materials had a return on equity of 12.53% and a net margin of 30.47%. The firm had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.94 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $6.94 earnings per share. Martin Marietta Materials’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 17.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $0.79 dividend. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.