Leavell Investment Management Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Leavell Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 15.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,661 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 613 shares during the quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $2,407,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $876,648,000 after buying an additional 704,460 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 23.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,678,425 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,441,663,000 after acquiring an additional 506,705 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 334,605 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 7,608.2% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 181,373 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $97,624,000 after acquiring an additional 179,020 shares during the period. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 54.2% in the third 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $563.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $595.00 to $645.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $701.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective 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. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Martin Marietta Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $648.71.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of MLM opened at $516.72 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $538.08 and its 200 day moving average is $549.88. The company has a current ratio of 2.34, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 12-month low of $482.72 and a 12-month high of $633.23. The company has a market capitalization of $31.58 billion, a PE ratio of 16.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.62 and a beta of 0.91.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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%. Research analysts expect that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 17.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.