Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Buys New Shares in Materion Corporation $MTRN

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC bought a new position in shares of Materion Corporation (NYSE:MTRN) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 17,098 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,085,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp raised its position in Materion by 28.0% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,298,956 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $103,098,000 after purchasing an additional 283,998 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Materion during the second quarter worth about $49,060,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Materion by 187.4% during the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 167,200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,199,000 after buying an additional 109,017 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its stake in shares of Materion by 313.6% during the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 82,019 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,510,000 after buying an additional 62,187 shares during the period. Finally, Concentric Capital Strategies LP acquired a new stake in Materion in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $7,650,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.56% of the company’s stock.

Materion Price Performance

MTRN stock opened at $286.75 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $257.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $200.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 2.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The stock has a market cap of $5.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.84 and a beta of 1.07. Materion Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $107.72 and a fifty-two week high of $304.58.

Materion (NYSE:MTRN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The basic materials company reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.38. Materion had a net margin of 4.29% and a return on equity of 13.38%. The company had revenue of $308.19 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $549.82 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.37 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 42.2% on a year-over-year basis. Materion has set its FY 2026 guidance at 6.800-7.200 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Materion Corporation will post 7.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Materion Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a $0.145 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $0.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Materion’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Jugal K. Vijayvargiya sold 24,336 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $291.62, for a total value of $7,096,864.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 116,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,031,762.38. The trade was a 17.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Shelly Marie Chadwick sold 1,705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.00, for a total transaction of $499,565.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 15,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,467,078. This represents a 10.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MTRN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Materion from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Materion from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Materion from $237.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Materion from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $306.00.

About Materion

Materion Corporation (NYSE: MTRN) is a global supplier of advanced materials and precision-engineered solutions. The company develops and manufactures high-performance alloys, engineered clad and composite materials, precision thin film products, and advanced optical and electronic materials. Materion’s offerings address critical performance requirements for industries where material properties such as strength, wear resistance, conductivity and optical clarity are paramount.

Materion’s core businesses include beryllium and beryllium composites for aerospace and defense platforms, nickel- and copper-based specialty alloys for industrial and medical applications, optical coatings and substrates for scientific instrumentation, and electronic materials used in semiconductor production.