Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC Reduces Holdings in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM - Free Report) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 50,820 shares of the construction company's stock after selling 1,668 shares during the quarter. Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC owned about 0.08% of Martin Marietta Materials worth $26,248,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MLM. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC increased its position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 15.5% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 25,242 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $13,037,000 after acquiring an additional 3,384 shares during the period. RMR Wealth Builders increased its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 431.3% during the 4th quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 2,391 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $1,235,000 after buying an additional 1,941 shares in the last quarter. InTrack Investment Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 33.9% in the fourth quarter. InTrack Investment Management Inc now owns 3,446 shares of the construction company's stock worth $1,784,000 after buying an additional 872 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 24.6% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 7,005 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $3,618,000 after purchasing an additional 1,382 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 64.6% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 2,028 shares of the construction company's stock worth $1,047,000 after acquiring an additional 796 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.04% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MLM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $559.00 to $609.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wolfe Research raised Martin Marietta Materials from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $563.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Stephens dropped their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $645.00 to $600.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Raymond James decreased their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $600.00 to $597.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $599.69.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MLM traded down $6.15 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $536.04. 323,160 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 485,122. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 12-month low of $441.95 and a 12-month high of $633.23. The stock has a market cap of $32.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.58, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.89. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $486.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $529.79. The company has a current ratio of 2.50, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The construction company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.88 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.36 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a return on equity of 12.11% and a net margin of 30.54%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.93 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.79 dividend. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Martin Marietta Materials's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.20%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Donald A. Mccunniff sold 1,332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $475.00, for a total value of $632,700.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,523 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,673,425. This trade represents a 27.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Michael J. Petro purchased 550 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $454.37 per share, with a total value of $249,903.50. Following the acquisition, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,985 shares in the company, valued at $4,082,514.45. This represents a 6.52 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.68% of the stock is owned by 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.