Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Acquires 10,309 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 2.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 364,283 shares of the construction company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,309 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $181,744,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new position in Martin Marietta Materials in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 78.8% during the fourth quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 59 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group boosted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 74.3% in the 4th quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 61 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MV Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 144.4% in the 3rd quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 66 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. 95.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on MLM. HSBC raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the company from $376.00 to $543.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $610.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com cut Martin Marietta Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Stephens boosted their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $575.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered shares of Martin Marietta Materials from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $598.17.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

MLM opened at $603.20 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $601.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $526.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.18 billion, a PE ratio of 17.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 3.16, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 12-month low of $389.90 and a 12-month high of $626.67.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The construction company reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.88 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 31.35% and a return on equity of 14.74%. The firm’s revenue was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.16 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 21.7 EPS for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.77%.

Insider Activity at Martin Marietta Materials

In related news, Director Sue W. Cole sold 1,724 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $543.48, for a total transaction of $936,959.52. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 19,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,757,099.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO C Howard Nye sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $604.26, for a total transaction of $9,063,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 134,640 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $81,357,566.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Sue W. Cole sold 1,724 shares of Martin Marietta Materials stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 19,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,757,099.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 26,724 shares of company stock worth $16,033,760. 0.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.