Mountaineer Partners Management LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Materion Co. (NYSE:MTRN)

Mountaineer Partners Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Materion Co. (NYSE:MTRN) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 79,742 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,034 shares during the period. Materion makes up about 5.8% of Mountaineer Partners Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC’s holdings in Materion were worth $7,885,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Materion by 307.8% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 261 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Materion by 269.5% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 436 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its position in Materion by 54.5% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 882 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $87,000 after purchasing an additional 311 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE lifted its position in Materion by 30.3% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,347 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $133,000 after purchasing an additional 313 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Materion in the fourth quarter valued at about $202,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Materion Price Performance

MTRN stock opened at $77.59 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $81.23 and a 200-day moving average of $96.14. Materion Co. has a 12-month low of $69.10 and a 12-month high of $123.21. The company has a current ratio of 3.19, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The company has a market cap of $1.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 267.53 and a beta of 0.85.

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

Materion Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. This is a boost from Materion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 29th. Materion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 112.00%.

Insider Transactions at Materion

In other news, VP Gregory R. Chemnitz sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.45, for a total transaction of $160,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 13,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,076,099.20. This trade represents a 13.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate 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.