KBC Group NV Sells 21,931 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

KBC Group NV cut its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 29.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 53,446 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 21,931 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV owned about 0.09% of Martin Marietta Materials worth $27,605,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MLM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 23.3% in 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 last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 15.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,515,441 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,353,936,000 after buying an additional 334,605 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 54.2% in the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 467,782 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $251,784,000 after purchasing an additional 164,503 shares during the last quarter. 95.04% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on MLM. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $650.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. BNP Paribas downgraded Martin Marietta Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. StockNews.com upgraded Martin Marietta Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays increased their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $595.00 to $645.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, HSBC raised Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $690.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Martin Marietta Materials presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $648.71.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Down 0.7 %

MLM opened at $542.33 on Wednesday. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 1-year low of $490.05 and a 1-year high of $633.23. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $549.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $551.41. The company has a current ratio of 2.34, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $33.15 billion, a PE ratio of 16.90, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.91.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $5.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $1.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $6.94 earnings per share. Martin Marietta Materials’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 17.57 EPS for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.79 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. Martin Marietta Materials’s payout ratio is currently 9.85%.

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.