Stephens Cuts Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) Price Target to $650.00

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) had its target price reduced by equities researchers at Stephens from $675.00 to $650.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the construction company’s stock. Stephens’ price objective indicates a potential upside of 23.65% from the company’s current price.

MLM has been the subject of several other reports. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $515.00 to $640.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Raymond James cut their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $640.00 to $630.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on Martin Marietta Materials in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $730.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Martin Marietta Materials presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $644.07.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

NYSE:MLM traded up $8.54 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $525.68. 192,699 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 402,538. 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 firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $536.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $549.65. Martin Marietta Materials has a fifty-two week low of $482.72 and a fifty-two week high of $633.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.62 and a beta of 0.91.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The construction company reported $4.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.62 by $0.17. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 30.47% and a return on equity of 12.53%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Martin Marietta Materials will post 17.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 54,277.3% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 918,432 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $474,370,000 after buying an additional 916,743 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 76.2% during the 3rd 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. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the 4th quarter valued at about $306,863,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 23.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,678,425 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,441,663,000 after buying an additional 506,705 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Martin Marietta Materials in the fourth quarter worth approximately $196,374,000. 95.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.