D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Increases Stake in Materion Co. (NYSE:MTRN)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. boosted its stake in Materion Co. (NYSE:MTRN - Free Report) by 28.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 27,751 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 6,091 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. owned about 0.13% of Materion worth $2,744,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MTRN. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in Materion in the fourth quarter worth $415,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Materion in the fourth quarter worth $10,399,000. Choreo LLC bought a new stake in Materion in the fourth quarter worth $315,000. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Materion by 356.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 34,877 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,902,000 after acquiring an additional 27,244 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its holdings in Materion by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 625,767 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $61,876,000 after acquiring an additional 22,322 shares in the last quarter. 93.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Materion Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of NYSE:MTRN opened at $80.39 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $1.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 277.21 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 3.19 and a quick ratio of 1.26. Materion Co. has a 1 year low of $69.10 and a 1 year high of $123.21. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $80.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $95.24.

Materion (NYSE:MTRN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $420.33 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $396.83 million. Materion had a return on equity of 12.42% and a net margin of 0.35%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.96 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Materion Co. will post 5.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Materion Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 29th will be given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 29th. This is a boost from Materion's previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. Materion's dividend payout ratio is 112.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, KeyCorp reaffirmed a "sector weight" rating on shares of Materion in a report on Wednesday, May 7th.

Insider Activity at Materion

In other Materion news, VP Gregory R. Chemnitz sold 2,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.45, for a total value of $160,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 13,376 shares in the company, valued at $1,076,099.20. This represents a 13.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Materion Profile

Materion Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, produces advanced engineered materials used in semiconductor, industrial, aerospace and defense, automotive, energy, consumer electronics, and telecom and data center in the United States, Asia, Europe, and internationally. The company operates in four segments: Performance Materials, Electronic Materials, Precision Optics, and Other.

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