Russell Investments Group Ltd. Increases Holdings in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 68,683 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 1,156 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.11% of Martin Marietta Materials worth $34,251,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MLM. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 225.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,833,959 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $752,803,000 after buying an additional 1,270,116 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 9.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,042,537 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $838,421,000 after buying an additional 181,136 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 22.6% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 570,193 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $234,053,000 after buying an additional 104,981 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the third quarter valued at $34,736,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 96.6% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 157,904 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $78,780,000 after buying an additional 77,596 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MLM has been the subject of a number of research reports. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $610.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Stephens lifted their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $575.00 to $605.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Wolfe Research lowered Martin Marietta Materials from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. Raymond James lifted their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $505.00 to $555.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Martin Marietta Materials in a report on Monday, January 8th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $595.00 target price for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $588.69.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Roselyn R. Bar sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $603.29, for a total value of $6,032,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 59,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,179,301.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Roselyn R. Bar sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $603.29, for a total value of $6,032,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 59,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,179,301.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Sue W. Cole sold 1,724 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $543.48, for a total value of $936,959.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 19,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,757,099.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 26,724 shares of company stock valued at $16,033,760. Insiders own 0.59% of the company’s stock.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Down 2.5 %

Shares of NYSE MLM opened at $587.32 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $36.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 3.35 and a quick ratio of 2.50. The business has a 50-day moving average of $595.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $519.51. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 1 year low of $361.23 and a 1 year high of $626.67.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The construction company reported $4.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.67. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.62 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a return on equity of 15.77% and a net margin of 17.25%. Martin Marietta Materials’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.04 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 21.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. Martin Marietta Materials’s payout ratio is currently 15.72%.

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.