Materion Co. (NYSE:MTRN) Shares Bought by First Trust Advisors LP

First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in Materion Co. (NYSE:MTRN - Free Report) by 209.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,717 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 9,286 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 0.07% of Materion worth $1,356,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of MTRN. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Materion by 307.8% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 261 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Materion by 269.5% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 436 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its holdings in shares of Materion by 54.5% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 882 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $87,000 after buying an additional 311 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of Materion by 30.3% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,347 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $133,000 after acquiring an additional 313 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Materion in the fourth quarter worth $202,000. Institutional investors own 93.56% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Materion

In other news, VP Gregory R. Chemnitz sold 2,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.45, for a total transaction of $160,900.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 13,376 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,076,099.20. This represents a 13.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.60% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, KeyCorp reissued a "sector weight" rating on shares of Materion in a research note on Wednesday.

Materion Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE:MTRN traded down $0.39 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $75.27. The stock had a trading volume of 161,747 shares, compared to its average volume of 103,081. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 3.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $81.47 and a 200 day moving average of $96.43. The company has a market capitalization of $1.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 259.55 and a beta of 0.85. Materion Co. has a one year low of $69.10 and a one year high of $123.21.

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

Materion Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.14 per share. This is a boost from Materion's previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 29th. Materion's dividend payout ratio is 108.00%.

About Materion

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.