Verition Fund Management LLC Purchases 5,029 Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)

Verition Fund Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 180.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,812 shares of the construction company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,029 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Martin Marietta Materials were worth $4,205,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 15.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,515,441 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,353,936,000 after acquiring an additional 334,605 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 76.2% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,628,701 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $876,648,000 after acquiring an additional 704,460 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 623,681 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $337,903,000 after acquiring an additional 12,759 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 54.2% during the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 467,782 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $251,784,000 after acquiring an additional 164,503 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Martin Marietta Materials by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 465,703 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $252,318,000 after acquiring an additional 11,749 shares during the last quarter. 95.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BNP Paribas raised shares of Martin Marietta Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $610.00 to $657.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $515.00 to $640.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Martin Marietta Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Martin Marietta Materials from $595.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $644.46.

Martin Marietta Materials Price Performance

MLM stock opened at $588.86 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $573.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $555.97. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. has a 12-month low of $456.83 and a 12-month high of $633.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.35, a PEG ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 2.34, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $5.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.41 by ($0.50). The company had revenue of $1.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. Martin Marietta Materials had a net margin of 30.47% and a return on equity of 12.53%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $6.94 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. will post 17.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Martin Marietta Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.79 per share. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Martin Marietta Materials’s payout ratio is 9.85%.

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.