Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Sells 35 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC cut its stake in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 0.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,972 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 35 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $2,830,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Family Firm Inc. lifted its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Family Firm Inc. now owns 653 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $232,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,982 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $670,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Gilbert & Cook Inc. lifted its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 1,141 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $405,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 10,526 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $3,737,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Trust N.A. lifted its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 1,505 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $535,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. 93.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Martin Marietta Materials

In other Martin Marietta Materials news, VP Craig M. Latorre sold 500 shares of Martin Marietta Materials stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.09, for a total transaction of $223,545.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,215,304.85. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Martin Marietta Materials news, VP Craig M. Latorre sold 500 shares of Martin Marietta Materials stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.09, for a total transaction of $223,545.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,215,304.85. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Craig M. Latorre sold 1,934 shares of Martin Marietta Materials stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $431.68, for a total transaction of $834,869.12. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 9,731 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,200,678.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.59% of the company’s stock.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MLM opened at $441.68 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $450.40 and a 200 day moving average of $402.89. The company has a current ratio of 2.21, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.90. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 12-month low of $298.32 and a 12-month high of $463.41.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The construction company reported $5.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.83 by $0.77. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 14.68% and a return on equity of 13.42%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.96 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 17.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 31st. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. This is an increase from Martin Marietta Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. Martin Marietta Materials’s payout ratio is currently 19.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MLM. Stephens lifted their price target on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $475.00 to $525.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $430.00 to $490.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $416.00 to $484.00 in a research note on Friday, July 28th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $450.00 to $465.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $410.00 to $493.00 in a research note on Friday, July 14th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $471.43.

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.