Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC Has $310,000 Stake in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC lifted its stake in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 25.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 600 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 120 shares during the period. Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $310,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MLM. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 76.2% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,628,701 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $876,648,000 after buying an additional 704,460 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 23.3% during the 3rd 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 boosted its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 15.3% during the 3rd 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. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 7,608.2% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 181,373 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $97,624,000 after acquiring an additional 179,020 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 54.2% during the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 467,782 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $251,784,000 after purchasing an additional 164,503 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MLM has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Loop Capital lifted 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. StockNews.com upgraded Martin Marietta Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Wolfe Research raised 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 report on Wednesday, January 8th. HSBC raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $690.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $650.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $648.71.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

NYSE MLM opened at $543.33 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $33.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.93, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.91. 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, Inc. has a twelve month low of $490.05 and a twelve month high of $633.23. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $555.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $550.86.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $5.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $6.41 by ($0.50). The company had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 30.47% and a return on equity of 12.53%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $6.94 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 17.6 EPS for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a $0.79 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.