Panagora Asset Management Inc. Acquires 829 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 15.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,192 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 829 shares during the quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $3,355,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Martin Marietta Materials in the 1st quarter valued at about $22,265,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 25.3% during the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 8,562 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $4,272,000 after purchasing an additional 1,728 shares during the last quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 49.7% in the fourth quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP now owns 5,672 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $2,830,000 after purchasing an additional 1,882 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,170,166 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $3,577,268,000 after purchasing an additional 69,701 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 60,499 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $29,161,000 after purchasing an additional 4,383 shares during the last quarter. 95.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MLM has been the topic of several research reports. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $660.00 to $665.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $658.00 to $646.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 12th. StockNews.com lowered Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $650.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Loop Capital reduced their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $630.00 to $615.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $629.82.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE:MLM traded up $10.17 during trading on Friday, hitting $534.16. 529,573 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 445,728. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $546.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $570.48. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 52 week low of $389.90 and a 52 week high of $626.67. The company has a current ratio of 3.16, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The company has a market cap of $32.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.91.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.60 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 22.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be paid a $0.79 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. This is a positive change from Martin Marietta Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.59%. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.