New England Research & Management Inc. Sells 760 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

New England Research & Management Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM - Free Report) by 25.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,285 shares of the construction company's stock after selling 760 shares during the period. New England Research & Management Inc.'s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $1,180,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MLM. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC increased its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 15.5% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 25,242 shares of the construction company's stock worth $13,037,000 after buying an additional 3,384 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 18.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 8,220 shares of the construction company's stock worth $4,914,000 after buying an additional 1,286 shares during the period. RMR Wealth Builders increased its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 431.3% during the fourth quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 2,391 shares of the construction company's stock worth $1,235,000 after acquiring an additional 1,941 shares during the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the 3rd quarter valued at about $734,000. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 2,448.1% during the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,376 shares of the construction company's stock worth $741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,322 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.04% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup dropped 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. BNP Paribas cut shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Wednesday. Raymond James decreased their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $640.00 to $630.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $657.00 to $622.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $648.71.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

MLM stock traded up $7.64 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $547.48. 180,763 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 345,991. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 52 week low of $490.05 and a 52 week high of $633.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 2.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.46 billion, a PE ratio of 17.06, a P/E/G ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.91. The business has a 50-day moving average of $548.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $551.33.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $5.91 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $6.41 by ($0.50). The company had revenue of $1.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 30.47% and a return on equity of 12.53%. Martin Marietta Materials's revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $6.94 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 17.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.79 per share. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Martin Marietta Materials's payout ratio is 9.85%.

Martin Marietta Materials 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.