Materion Co. (NYSE:MTRN) Shares Bought by Hennessy Advisors Inc.

Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its position in Materion Co. (NYSE:MTRN) by 44.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 40,900 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,500 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Materion were worth $5,389,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Aurora Investment Counsel boosted its holdings in shares of Materion by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 6,505 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $846,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Materion by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 2,133 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $278,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its position in shares of Materion by 529.0% in the fourth quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 195 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Materion by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 35,472 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,616,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the period. Finally, SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Materion by 285.6% in the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 428 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. 93.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Materion from $156.00 to $152.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 10th.

Materion Trading Down 1.2 %

NYSE:MTRN traded down $1.27 on Thursday, hitting $107.38. 136,407 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 101,144. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.91 and a beta of 1.21. Materion Co. has a 52 week low of $92.23 and a 52 week high of $145.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 2.91. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $112.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $121.43.

Materion (NYSE:MTRN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $385.29 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $386.84 million. Materion had a net margin of 5.19% and a return on equity of 12.32%. The business’s revenue was down 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.34 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Materion Co. will post 5.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Materion Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.135 per share. This represents a $0.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. This is a boost from Materion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 22nd. Materion’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Materion news, Director Emily M. Liggett sold 1,152 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.86, for a total transaction of $128,862.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $293,185.06. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, VP Gregory R. Chemnitz sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.31, for a total value of $226,620.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 18,031 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,043,092.61. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Emily M. Liggett sold 1,152 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.86, for a total value of $128,862.72. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $293,185.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.