Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) Upgraded to Outperform at Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM - Free Report) from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note published on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has $563.00 price target on the construction company's stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. HSBC upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $690.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $657.00 to $622.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Loop Capital lifted their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $701.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $643.36.

Martin Marietta Materials Price Performance

NYSE MLM traded up $8.66 on Wednesday, reaching $517.31. The company's stock had a trading volume of 377,970 shares, compared to its average volume of 394,174. Martin Marietta Materials has a 52 week low of $488.30 and a 52 week high of $633.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.34, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $31.62 billion, a PE ratio of 16.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.91. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $568.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $551.88.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $5.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $6.41 by ($0.50). The company had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 30.47% and a return on equity of 12.53%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $6.94 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Martin Marietta Materials will post 17.58 EPS for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.79 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.61%. Martin Marietta Materials's payout ratio is presently 9.85%.

Institutional Trading of Martin Marietta Materials

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 23.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,678,425 shares of the construction company's stock worth $1,441,663,000 after purchasing an additional 506,705 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 15.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,515,441 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $1,353,936,000 after buying an additional 334,605 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 76.2% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,628,701 shares of the construction company's stock worth $876,648,000 after buying an additional 704,460 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 2.1% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 623,681 shares of the construction company's stock worth $337,903,000 after buying an additional 12,759 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 534,801 shares of the construction company's stock worth $295,397,000 after buying an additional 9,908 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.04% of the company's stock.

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.