Wall Street Zen Upgrades Materion (NYSE:MTRN) to Buy

Materion (NYSE:MTRN) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

Separately, KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Materion in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th.

Materion Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of Materion stock opened at $85.59 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $79.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $87.33. Materion has a 12-month low of $69.10 and a 12-month high of $123.21. The company has a current ratio of 2.84, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The stock has a market cap of $1.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 171.18 and a beta of 0.80.

Materion (NYSE:MTRN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.01. Materion had a net margin of 0.59% and a return on equity of 12.83%. The business had revenue of $420.33 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $396.83 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.96 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Materion will post 5.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Gregory R. Chemnitz sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.45, for a total value of $160,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 13,376 shares in the company, valued at $1,076,099.20. This represents a 13.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Materion

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Materion by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,523,141 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $249,488,000 after purchasing an additional 25,888 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Materion by 16.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 1,838,484 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $181,789,000 after purchasing an additional 257,637 shares during the last quarter. Trigran Investments Inc. raised its position in Materion by 7.7% during the 1st quarter. Trigran Investments Inc. now owns 794,765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $64,853,000 after buying an additional 56,935 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its position in Materion by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 673,007 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $54,917,000 after buying an additional 47,240 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its position in Materion by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 473,606 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $46,830,000 after buying an additional 30,262 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.56% of the company’s stock.

Materion Company Profile

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.