Principal Financial Group Inc. Purchases 120,679 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM - Free Report) by 6.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,940,423 shares of the construction company's stock after buying an additional 120,679 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 3.20% of Martin Marietta Materials worth $927,775,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials during the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 91.9% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 71 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 193.9% during the 1st quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 97 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bellwether Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials during the 4th quarter valued at $46,000. Institutional investors own 95.04% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MLM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $559.00 to $609.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen lowered Martin Marietta Materials from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 31st. Raymond James Financial lowered their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $600.00 to $597.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $561.00 to $576.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, UBS Group raised Martin Marietta Materials from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $548.00 to $634.00 in a research report on Friday, May 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $603.86.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

MLM stock traded down $0.78 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $557.89. 310,586 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 484,146. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 52-week low of $441.95 and a 52-week high of $633.23. The stock has a market cap of $33.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.14, a PEG ratio of 5.07 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 2.25, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The stock's 50-day moving average is $545.73 and its 200 day moving average is $519.97.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The construction company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.88 by $0.02. The business 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 company's revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.93 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.53 EPS for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 2nd were given a $0.79 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.57%. Martin Marietta Materials's payout ratio is currently 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.