Barclays PLC Grows Position in Materion Co. (NYSE:MTRN)

Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Materion Co. (NYSE:MTRN) by 7.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 37,631 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,754 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC owned approximately 0.18% of Materion worth $3,721,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Materion by 38.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 61,385 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,867,000 after purchasing an additional 16,904 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Materion by 307.8% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 261 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in Materion in the fourth quarter worth $415,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Materion in the fourth quarter worth $10,399,000. Finally, Choreo LLC purchased a new stake in Materion in the fourth quarter worth $315,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.56% of the company’s stock.

Materion Stock Performance

Shares of MTRN stock opened at $82.52 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $83.78 and a 200 day moving average of $97.95. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $1.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 284.55 and a beta of 1.15. Materion Co. has a 52 week low of $69.10 and a 52 week high of $123.21.

Materion (NYSE:MTRN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $436.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $433.22 million. Materion had a return on equity of 12.42% and a net margin of 0.35%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.41 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Materion Co. will post 5.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Materion Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were paid a $0.135 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.54 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Materion’s dividend payout ratio is presently 186.21%.

Insider Transactions at Materion

In related news, CFO Shelly Marie Chadwick sold 805 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.24, for a total transaction of $81,498.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 14,632 shares in the company, valued at $1,481,343.68. This represents a 5.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 2.60% of the company’s stock.

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.