First Trust Advisors LP Has $26.43 Million Position in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. $MLM

First Trust Advisors LP lessened its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 11.2% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 48,139 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 6,072 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $26,427,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,955,139 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,622,254,000 after acquiring an additional 10,445 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 9.2% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 1,706,416 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $827,345,000 after purchasing an additional 144,270 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 0.3% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,520,932 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $831,331,000 after purchasing an additional 4,666 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 2.5% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 633,472 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $302,882,000 after purchasing an additional 15,678 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 527,968 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $289,833,000 after purchasing an additional 2,285 shares during the period. 95.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $610.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 1st. DA Davidson set a $690.00 target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $637.00 to $681.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Raymond James Financial boosted their price target on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $645.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Martin Marietta Materials in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Martin Marietta Materials has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $645.00.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

Shares of Martin Marietta Materials stock opened at $623.36 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 2.97 and a quick ratio of 2.07. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $619.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $595.38. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $441.95 and a fifty-two week high of $665.18. The firm has a market cap of $37.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.86 and a beta of 1.16.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The construction company reported $5.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $6.62 by ($0.65). The firm had revenue of $1.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.06 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a return on equity of 11.68% and a net margin of 17.34%. Sell-side analysts predict that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 1st. Martin Marietta Materials’s payout ratio is currently 17.50%.

Martin Marietta Materials 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.