Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. Grows Position in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM - Free Report) by 39.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 659,363 shares of the construction company's stock after buying an additional 185,731 shares during the quarter. Martin Marietta Materials accounts for 1.4% of Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. owned about 1.09% of Martin Marietta Materials worth $315,261,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Wedbush Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 640 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $306,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. IMA Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Martin Marietta Materials in the 1st quarter valued at $40,000. Egerton Capital UK LLP raised its stake in Martin Marietta Materials by 101.0% in the 1st quarter. Egerton Capital UK LLP now owns 165,338 shares of the construction company's stock worth $79,053,000 after acquiring an additional 83,062 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS lifted its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 21,193 shares of the construction company's stock worth $10,133,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Finally, Gries Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Martin Marietta Materials during the 1st quarter valued at about $228,000. 95.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on MLM shares. Raymond James Financial decreased their target price on Martin Marietta Materials from $600.00 to $597.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $559.00 to $609.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, May 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $561.00 to $576.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Loop Capital decreased their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $645.00 to $615.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $603.86.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

NYSE MLM traded up $4.57 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $586.01. 233,675 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 334,358. The company has a market capitalization of $35.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.76, a P/E/G ratio of 5.29 and a beta of 0.87. The business's 50 day moving average is $554.71 and its 200-day moving average is $523.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 2.25. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 1 year low of $441.95 and a 1 year high of $633.23.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The construction company reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.88 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.36 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 16.07% and a return on equity of 12.01%. The firm's revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.93 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd were issued a $0.79 dividend. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 2nd. Martin Marietta Materials's payout ratio is presently 18.20%.

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.