Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) Upgraded at Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating in a report issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. They currently have $563.00 price target on the construction company’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. HSBC raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $690.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $701.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $657.00 to $622.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Loop Capital increased their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, StockNews.com cut Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Martin Marietta Materials has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $643.36.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Down 1.7 %

NYSE MLM opened at $508.54 on Wednesday. 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 has a 1-year low of $489.90 and a 1-year high of $633.23. The company has a 50 day moving average of $563.58 and a 200-day moving average of $551.17. The company has a market cap of $31.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.85, a PEG ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.91.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $5.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.41 by ($0.50). The firm had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $6.94 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Martin Marietta Materials will post 17.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.79 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.85%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Martin Marietta Materials

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 506,705 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 334,605 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 76.2% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,628,701 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $876,648,000 after purchasing an additional 704,460 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 2.1% in the second 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. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 1.9% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 534,801 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $295,397,000 after purchasing an additional 9,908 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Martin Marietta Materials Company Profile

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.