Banco Santander S.A. Makes New Investment in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Banco Santander S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 478 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $257,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MLM. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 76.2% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,628,701 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $876,648,000 after acquiring an additional 704,460 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 114.3% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 980,699 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $602,092,000 after purchasing an additional 523,038 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 623,681 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $337,903,000 after purchasing an additional 12,759 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 54.2% in the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 467,782 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $251,784,000 after purchasing an additional 164,503 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 2.6% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 465,703 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $252,318,000 after purchasing an additional 11,749 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Citigroup dropped their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $658.00 to $646.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 12th. BNP Paribas raised Martin Marietta Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $650.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $595.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $560.00 to $515.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $634.85.

Martin Marietta Materials Price Performance

MLM opened at $597.81 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $565.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $556.75. The company has a current ratio of 2.34, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 1 year low of $456.83 and a 1 year high of $633.23. The stock has a market cap of $36.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.63, a PEG ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 0.90.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced 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 net margin of 30.47% and a return on equity of 12.53%. The firm had revenue of $1.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $6.94 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 17.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a $0.79 dividend. 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 dividend payout ratio is 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.