USS Investment Management Ltd Reduces Stake in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

USS Investment Management Ltd lowered its stake in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM - Free Report) by 24.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,605 shares of the construction company's stock after selling 3,390 shares during the period. USS Investment Management Ltd's holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $5,477,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new position in Martin Marietta Materials in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Martin Marietta Materials in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Martin Marietta Materials in the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in Martin Marietta Materials in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Martin Marietta Materials by 91.9% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 71 shares of the construction company's stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.04% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on MLM shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $561.00 to $576.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $640.00 to $560.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. UBS Group raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $548.00 to $634.00 in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Raymond James decreased their price objective on shares of 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $610.69.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Donald A. Mccunniff sold 1,332 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $475.00, for a total value of $632,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,523 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,673,425. The trade was a 27.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Michael J. Petro acquired 550 shares of Martin Marietta Materials stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $454.37 per share, with a total value of $249,903.50. Following the purchase, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,985 shares of the company's stock, 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. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

Martin Marietta Materials stock opened at $564.23 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $506.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $528.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 2.50. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $441.95 and a fifty-two week high of $633.23. The company has a market capitalization of $34.01 billion, a PE ratio of 17.45, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.89.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.88 by $0.02. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 30.54% and a return on equity of 12.11%. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.36 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.93 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a $0.79 dividend. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. Martin Marietta Materials's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.20%.

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.

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