Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) Raised to Outperform at Wolfe Research

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) was upgraded by Wolfe Research from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The firm currently has a $563.00 target price on the construction company’s stock. Wolfe Research’s price objective points to a potential upside of 10.48% from the stock’s current price.

MLM has been the subject of several other reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $595.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. BNP Paribas downgraded Martin Marietta Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group initiated coverage on Martin Marietta Materials in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $730.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com cut Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Martin Marietta Materials from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $515.00 to $640.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $643.36.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

NYSE:MLM opened at $509.61 on Wednesday. Martin Marietta Materials has a twelve month low of $485.31 and a twelve month high of $633.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 2.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $569.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $552.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.15 billion, a PE ratio of 15.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.91.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $5.91 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.41 by ($0.50). Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 30.47% and a return on equity of 12.53%. The firm had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $6.94 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Martin Marietta Materials will post 17.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Martin Marietta Materials

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MLM. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 411.1% in the second quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 46 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC lifted its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 1,300.0% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 56 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. First Personal Financial Services purchased a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Larson Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials during the third quarter valued at about $49,000. Finally, Tobam lifted its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 38.8% in the third quarter. Tobam now owns 93 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. 95.04% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.