VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Takes $1.34 Million Position in Materion Corporation $MTRN

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of Materion Corporation (NYSE:MTRN) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 4,500 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,338,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its holdings in Materion by 28,829.4% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 7,120,111 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,117,450,000 after acquiring an additional 7,095,499 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Materion during the second quarter valued at about $1,032,985,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new stake in Materion during the second quarter worth about $132,656,000. State Street Corp increased its stake in Materion by 28.0% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,298,956 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $103,098,000 after acquiring an additional 283,998 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Materion in the 2nd quarter worth about $51,481,000. 93.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MTRN. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Materion from $237.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Materion from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Materion from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Materion in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $314.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Materion from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Materion currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $310.00.

Insider Transactions at Materion

In other news, Director Emily Liggett sold 1,012 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $232.42, for a total value of $235,209.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,161 shares in the company, valued at approximately $734,679.62. The trade was a 24.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Shelly Chadwick sold 1,705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.00, for a total value of $499,565.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 15,246 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,467,078. This represents a 10.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 29,053 shares of company stock worth $8,301,958 in the last quarter. Insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Materion Trading Up 2.1%

NYSE MTRN opened at $256.87 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.88 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 2.94 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Materion Corporation has a 12 month low of $109.61 and a 12 month high of $304.58. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $248.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $212.98.

Materion (NYSE:MTRN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The basic materials company reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.38. Materion had a net margin of 4.29% and a return on equity of 13.38%. The business had revenue of $308.19 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $549.82 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.37 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 42.2% on a year-over-year basis. Materion has set its FY 2026 guidance at 6.800-7.200 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Materion Corporation will post 7.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Materion Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th were issued a dividend of $0.145 per share. This represents a $0.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 20th. Materion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.52%.

About Materion

Materion Corporation is an advanced materials company that develops, manufactures and supplies engineered materials for demanding industrial and technology applications. Its portfolio includes specialty metals and alloys, thin-film deposition materials, precious and non-precious metal products, beryllium-based materials, specialty chemicals and precision optics.

The company’s products are used in semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace and defense, medical technology, telecommunications, automotive systems, energy and other industrial markets.