Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” by Brokerages

Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) has been given an average recommendation of “Buy” by the sixteen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, fourteen have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $643.36.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas cut Martin Marietta Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $595.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Martin Marietta Materials in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $730.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Martin Marietta Materials from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $563.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Martin Marietta Materials

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 18.5% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 8,220 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $4,914,000 after acquiring an additional 1,286 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Martin Marietta Materials during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $734,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 2,448.1% during the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,376 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $741,000 after buying an additional 1,322 shares in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 12,936 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $6,963,000 after buying an additional 1,014 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 158.2% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 43,952 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $23,657,000 after buying an additional 26,929 shares during the period. 95.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Martin Marietta Materials Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of MLM stock opened at $517.31 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.91. Martin Marietta Materials has a fifty-two week low of $488.30 and a fifty-two week high of $633.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 2.34. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $568.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $551.88.

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

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.79 per share. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.