Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) Lowered to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report report published on Monday morning.

MLM has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Loop Capital dropped their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $710.00 to $630.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Stephens dropped their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $650.00 to $610.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $650.00 to $630.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Citigroup reduced their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $658.00 to $646.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $660.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $625.55.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of Martin Marietta Materials stock opened at $530.36 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 3.16 and a quick ratio of 2.41. The stock has a market cap of $32.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.56, a PEG ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.91. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $552.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $569.49. Martin Marietta Materials has a 1 year low of $389.90 and a 1 year high of $626.67.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The construction company reported $4.76 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.36 by ($0.60). Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 31.35% and a return on equity of 14.74%. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.83 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $5.60 earnings per share. Martin Marietta Materials’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Martin Marietta Materials will post 22.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 3rd. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.77%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Martin Marietta Materials

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of MLM. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,170,166 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $3,577,268,000 after acquiring an additional 69,701 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 114.3% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 980,699 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $602,092,000 after purchasing an additional 523,038 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings 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 valued at $337,903,000 after purchasing an additional 12,759 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Martin Marietta Materials in the fourth quarter valued at $308,705,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 2.6% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 465,703 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $252,318,000 after purchasing an additional 11,749 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

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.