PDS Planning Inc Buys New Shares in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

PDS Planning Inc purchased a new position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 416 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MLM. FMR LLC increased its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 225.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,833,959 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $752,803,000 after buying an additional 1,270,116 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 9.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,042,537 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $838,421,000 after buying an additional 181,136 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 22.6% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 570,193 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $234,053,000 after buying an additional 104,981 shares during the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new position in Martin Marietta Materials during the third quarter worth approximately $34,736,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 96.6% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 157,904 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $78,780,000 after buying an additional 77,596 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MLM. HSBC raised Martin Marietta Materials from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $376.00 to $543.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and set a $600.00 price objective (up previously from $530.00) on shares of Martin Marietta Materials in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $621.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. 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 report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $505.00 to $555.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $588.69.

Martin Marietta Materials Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of MLM stock opened at $594.68 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.35, a quick ratio of 2.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market cap of $36.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $589.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $513.61. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 1 year low of $343.79 and a 1 year high of $626.67.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The construction company reported $4.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.67. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.62 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a return on equity of 15.77% and a net margin of 17.25%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.04 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 21.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Martin Marietta Materials news, EVP Roselyn R. Bar sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $603.29, for a total transaction of $6,032,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 59,970 shares in the company, valued at $36,179,301.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Martin Marietta Materials news, EVP Roselyn R. Bar sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $603.29, for a total transaction of $6,032,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 59,970 shares in the company, valued at $36,179,301.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO C Howard Nye sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 134,640 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $81,357,566.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,724 shares of company stock worth $16,033,760 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.59% of the company’s stock.

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.