Oak Thistle LLC Sells 311 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Oak Thistle LLC reduced its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 22.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,052 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 311 shares during the period. Oak Thistle LLC’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $543,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 23.3% in the 3rd 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 holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 15.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,515,441 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,353,936,000 after purchasing an additional 334,605 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 76.2% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,628,701 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $876,648,000 after purchasing an additional 704,460 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 1.9% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 534,801 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $295,397,000 after purchasing an additional 9,908 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its stake 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 buying an additional 164,503 shares during the last quarter. 95.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

MLM opened at $530.94 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 2.34 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $557.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $550.78. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 1 year low of $489.90 and a 1 year high of $633.23. The company has a market capitalization of $32.45 billion, a PE ratio of 16.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.91.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $5.91 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $6.94 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 17.6 EPS for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a $0.79 dividend. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.85%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MLM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. 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 research note on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com upgraded Martin Marietta Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Raymond James dropped their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $640.00 to $630.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, HSBC upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $690.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $648.71.

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.