Sentry Investment Management LLC Sells 38 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Sentry Investment Management LLC lowered its position in Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 14.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 231 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 38 shares during the quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $119,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 782 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $421,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 570 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $307,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 447 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $231,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 1,123 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $604,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the period. Finally, OLD National Bancorp IN increased its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 483 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $249,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on MLM. Wolfe Research raised Martin Marietta Materials from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $563.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com cut Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. BNP Paribas cut Martin Marietta Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Stephens decreased their price objective on Martin Marietta Materials from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, HSBC raised Martin Marietta Materials from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $690.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Martin Marietta Materials has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $639.43.

Martin Marietta Materials Stock Performance

MLM stock opened at $491.15 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $527.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $546.49. The company has a current ratio of 2.50, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market cap of $30.02 billion, a PE ratio of 15.19, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.91. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 1-year low of $482.72 and a 1-year high of $633.23.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The construction company reported $4.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.62 by $0.17. Martin Marietta Materials had a return on equity of 12.11% and a net margin of 30.54%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 19.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.79 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Martin Marietta Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.77%.

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.