T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. Decreases Holdings in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. $MLM

Key Points

• T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. reduced its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 24.4%, selling 392,259 shares, and currently owns approximately 2.01% of the company valued at $580.66 million.
• Martin Marietta Materials recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.83 per share, an increase from the previous dividend of $0.79, with the payout ratio at 18.41%.
• Wall Street analysts are optimistic about the stock, with a consensus price target of $622.63 and ratings that include 2 Strong Buy, 13 Buy, and 4 Hold ratings.

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM - Free Report) by 24.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,214,443 shares of the construction company's stock after selling 392,259 shares during the quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. owned approximately 2.01% of Martin Marietta Materials worth $580,662,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 2.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,342,358 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $3,510,602,000 after purchasing an additional 168,175 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 10.1% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,944,694 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $1,407,947,000 after purchasing an additional 268,928 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 6.6% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,940,423 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $927,775,000 after purchasing an additional 120,679 shares during the period. Alkeon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 46.6% during the fourth quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC now owns 771,198 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $398,324,000 after purchasing an additional 245,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Martin Marietta Materials by 58,570.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 697,592 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $333,540,000 after purchasing an additional 696,403 shares in the last quarter. 95.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MLM shares. UBS Group raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $548.00 to $634.00 in a report on Friday, May 16th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Martin Marietta Materials from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $625.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $609.00 to $637.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lifted their price target on Martin Marietta Materials from $600.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $622.63.

Martin Marietta Materials Trading Up 0.2%

MLM traded up $1.06 on Monday, hitting $608.95. The company had a trading volume of 82,370 shares, compared to its average volume of 476,107. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 1 year low of $441.95 and a 1 year high of $633.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The company's fifty day moving average price is $573.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $532.84. The firm has a market cap of $36.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.77, a PEG ratio of 5.54 and a beta of 0.89.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The construction company reported $5.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $5.44 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.88 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 11.88%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.76 earnings per share. Martin Marietta Materials has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This is an increase from Martin Marietta Materials's previous quarterly dividend of $0.79. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 2nd. Martin Marietta Materials's payout ratio is presently 17.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Martin Marietta Materials

In other news, Director Laree E. Perez sold 1,038 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $613.32, for a total value of $636,626.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 15,417 shares in the company, valued at $9,455,554.44. This trade represents a 6.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.68% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.