Defender Capital LLC. Sells 100 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Defender Capital LLC. reduced its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 13.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 655 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Defender Capital LLC.’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $338,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MLM. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 704,460 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $1,441,663,000 after acquiring an additional 506,705 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 334,605 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 7,608.2% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 181,373 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $97,624,000 after purchasing an additional 179,020 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its position in 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 valued at $251,784,000 after purchasing an additional 164,503 shares during the period. 95.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $657.00 to $622.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. BNP Paribas downgraded Martin Marietta Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Martin Marietta Materials in a report on Thursday, November 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $730.00 price objective for the company. Wolfe Research raised Martin Marietta Materials from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $563.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their target price 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given 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, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $648.71.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

Shares of MLM stock opened at $540.51 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $33.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.84, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.91. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $490.05 and a fifty-two week high of $633.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 2.34. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $548.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $551.33.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $5.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $6.94 earnings per share. Martin Marietta Materials’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 17.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.79 per share. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.85%.

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.