B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. Sells 243 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. trimmed its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 5,249 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 243 shares during the quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $2,782,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC grew its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 15.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,515,441 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,353,936,000 after acquiring an additional 334,605 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 704,460 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 2.1% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 623,681 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $337,903,000 after acquiring an additional 12,759 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 1.9% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 534,801 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $295,397,000 after acquiring an additional 9,908 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 54.2% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 467,782 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $251,784,000 after acquiring an additional 164,503 shares in the last quarter. 95.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MLM has been the subject of several recent research reports. Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $650.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $515.00 to $640.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $610.00 to $657.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $655.77.

Martin Marietta Materials Price Performance

Shares of Martin Marietta Materials stock opened at $550.92 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 2.34 and a quick ratio of 1.24. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $479.67 and a fifty-two week high of $633.23. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $579.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $555.61. The company has a market cap of $33.67 billion, a PE ratio of 17.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.89.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $5.91 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $6.94 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 17.58 EPS for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $0.79 dividend. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio is 9.85%.

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.