Sentry Investment Management LLC Sells 35 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Sentry Investment Management LLC cut its stake in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 9.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 324 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 35 shares during the quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $162,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MLM. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. MV Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 144.4% in the 3rd quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 66 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 84.6% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 72 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. 95.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on MLM. Wolfe Research downgraded Martin Marietta Materials from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. HSBC raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $376.00 to $543.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Stephens raised their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $575.00 to $605.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $610.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a 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 $588.69.

Martin Marietta Materials Price Performance

MLM stock opened at $592.46 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.50, a current ratio of 3.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $583.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $507.61. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 12-month low of $343.79 and a 12-month high of $626.67. The firm has a market cap of $36.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.46, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.96.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The construction company reported $4.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.67. Martin Marietta Materials had a return on equity of 15.77% and a net margin of 17.25%. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.04 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 21.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. Martin Marietta Materials’s payout ratio is 15.72%.

Insider Transactions at Martin Marietta Materials

In other news, Director Sue W. Cole sold 1,724 shares of Martin Marietta Materials stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $543.48, for a total value of $936,959.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,757,099.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Martin Marietta Materials news, CEO C Howard Nye sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $604.26, for a total value of $9,063,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 134,640 shares in the company, valued at $81,357,566.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sue W. Cole sold 1,724 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $543.48, for a total value of $936,959.52. Following the sale, the director now owns 19,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,757,099.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 26,724 shares of company stock valued at $16,033,760 in the last quarter. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Martin Marietta Materials 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.