Great Lakes Advisors LLC Buys New Position in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. $MLM

Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 13,964 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,053,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,706,134,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 51.8% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,448,928 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,524,853,000 after buying an additional 836,120 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,399,779 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,412,702,000 after buying an additional 21,310 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,553,364 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $963,406,000 after acquiring an additional 10,743 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,367,016 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $851,188,000 after acquiring an additional 68,382 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on MLM shares. Wolfe Research set a $648.00 price objective on Martin Marietta Materials in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Oppenheimer started coverage on Martin Marietta Materials in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. UBS Group cut their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $739.00 to $715.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Weiss Ratings lowered Martin Marietta Materials from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $615.00 to $610.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $668.53.

Martin Marietta Materials Price Performance

Shares of MLM opened at $535.67 on Thursday. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a twelve month low of $522.19 and a twelve month high of $710.97. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $571.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $597.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.16, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The construction company reported $5.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.76 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 36.73% and a return on equity of 9.49%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $5.43 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.84 per share. This is a positive change from Martin Marietta Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 1st. This represents a $3.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.16%.

About Martin Marietta Materials

Martin Marietta Materials, Inc (NYSE: MLM) is a leading producer of aggregates and heavy building materials serving the construction and infrastructure markets. The company operates quarries, sand and gravel pits, and other extraction sites to supply crushed stone, sand and gravel, and a range of value?added products for use in roads, bridges, commercial and residential construction, and other civil engineering projects.

In addition to its core aggregates business, Martin Marietta manufactures and sells asphalt, ready?mixed concrete and related materials and services.