Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd Buys 237 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 58.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 644 shares of the construction company’s stock after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the period. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $321,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MLM. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in Martin Marietta Materials in the fourth quarter worth approximately $340,000. PDS Planning Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the fourth quarter worth $208,000. Jennison Associates LLC increased 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 worth $78,780,000 after purchasing an additional 77,596 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,524 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $760,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 5,739 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,863,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MLM has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $621.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Martin Marietta Materials from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. StockNews.com cut shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. HSBC raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the company from $376.00 to $543.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Stephens raised their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $575.00 to $605.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $588.69.

Insider Activity at Martin Marietta Materials

In related news, Director Sue W. Cole sold 1,724 shares of Martin Marietta Materials stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $543.48, for a total transaction of $936,959.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,757,099.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, Director Sue W. Cole sold 1,724 shares of Martin Marietta Materials stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $543.48, for a total transaction of $936,959.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,757,099.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Roselyn R. Bar sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $603.29, for a total transaction of $6,032,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 59,970 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,179,301.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,724 shares of company stock worth $16,033,760 in the last 90 days. 0.59% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Martin Marietta Materials Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Martin Marietta Materials stock traded down $2.57 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $591.82. The stock had a trading volume of 331,710 shares, compared to its average volume of 408,041. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $589.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $513.61. The stock has a market cap of $36.53 billion, a PE ratio of 31.60, a PEG ratio of 2.83 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. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 12 month low of $343.79 and a 12 month high of $626.67.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The construction company reported $4.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.67. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.62 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 17.25% and a return on equity of 15.77%. The business’s revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.04 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 21.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.