Farringdon Capital Ltd. Acquires New Stake in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Farringdon Capital Ltd. bought a new position in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 628 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $324,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 2,462 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,272,000 after acquiring an additional 286 shares during the period. Jump Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 1,688 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $872,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 410 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $212,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan purchased a new position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the fourth quarter worth about $484,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $353,000. 95.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on MLM. Stifel Nicolaus assumed coverage on shares of Martin Marietta Materials in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $559.00 price objective for the company. Raymond James reduced their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Loop Capital cut their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $645.00 to $615.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Martin Marietta Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $701.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Martin Marietta Materials has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $599.62.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Up 0.6 %

MLM opened at $493.92 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $486.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $532.39. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 52 week low of $441.95 and a 52 week high of $633.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 2.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The stock has a market cap of $30.12 billion, a PE ratio of 15.28, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.81.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The construction company reported $4.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.62 by $0.17. Martin Marietta Materials had a return on equity of 12.11% and a net margin of 30.54%. As a group, research analysts expect that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.79 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.77%.

Insider Activity at Martin Marietta Materials

In related news, EVP Donald A. Mccunniff sold 1,332 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $475.00, for a total transaction of $632,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,523 shares in the company, valued at $1,673,425. This represents a 27.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Michael J. Petro purchased 550 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $454.37 per share, for a total transaction of $249,903.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,082,514.45. This trade represents a 6.52 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.68% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.