Metis Global Partners LLC Raises Position in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its stake in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 43.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,824 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 861 shares during the quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $1,459,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. First Personal Financial Services bought a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Martin Marietta Materials in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in Martin Marietta Materials in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. 95.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Loop Capital cut their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $680.00 to $645.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. HSBC raised 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 research report on Wednesday, December 11th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Martin Marietta Materials in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $730.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $563.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Martin Marietta Materials currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $639.43.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Down 3.0 %

MLM opened at $468.84 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 2.50. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $467.99 and a fifty-two week high of $633.23. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $523.87 and its 200 day moving average is $545.14. The stock has a market cap of $28.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.91.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The construction company reported $4.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.62 by $0.17. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 30.54% and a return on equity of 12.11%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.79 dividend. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Martin Marietta Materials’s payout ratio is currently 9.77%.

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.