Neuberger Berman Group LLC Acquires 756 Shares of Materion Corporation (NYSE:MTRN)

Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Materion Corporation (NYSE:MTRN) by 17.5% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,078 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 756 shares during the period. Neuberger Berman Group LLC’s holdings in Materion were worth $414,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Materion by 2.3% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 103,572 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,451,000 after buying an additional 2,369 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Materion by 722.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,146 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $175,000 after purchasing an additional 1,885 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its stake in Materion by 7.5% during the first quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 673,007 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $54,917,000 after purchasing an additional 47,240 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Materion during the first quarter worth about $714,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in Materion during the first quarter worth about $248,000. Institutional investors own 93.56% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Fashinpaur sold 1,140 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.34, for a total value of $120,087.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director N Mohan Reddy sold 1,155 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.45, for a total value of $121,794.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 5,295 shares of company stock valued at $557,392. Insiders own 2.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered Materion from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $117.00 price target (up previously from $115.00) on shares of Materion in a research note on Wednesday.

Materion Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE MTRN opened at $111.93 on Friday. Materion Corporation has a 1-year low of $69.10 and a 1-year high of $123.21. The company has a current ratio of 3.17, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $90.77 and a 200-day moving average of $86.92. The firm has a market cap of $2.32 billion, a PE ratio of 139.91 and a beta of 0.85.

Materion (NYSE:MTRN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.19. Materion had a return on equity of 12.69% and a net margin of 0.94%. The company had revenue of $431.66 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $403.73 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.42 EPS. Materion’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Materion Corporation will post 5.5 EPS for the current year.

Materion Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 22nd will be paid a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 22nd. Materion’s payout ratio is 70.00%.

Materion 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.