MLM · Materials(mining & quarrying of nonmetallic minerals (no fuels)) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Martin Marietta Materials Inc reported revenue of $6.2 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 5.4% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin widened from 17.7% in 2016 to 23.4%, and it earned 7.6% on its invested capital in the latest year. Of the $11.0 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 85.2% went to acquisitions and 46.9% back into the business; the share count fell 5.1%. On the accounting screens, it passes 8 of 9 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 3.65 is in the safe zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; none of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 20256.2B+5.4% a year over 9 years
Operating margin23.4%gross margin 30.7%
Return on invested capital7.6%8.7% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow after stock pay932.0M15.2% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA2.5×net debt 5.3B
Piotroski F-score8/9tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
02.0B4.0B6.0B8.0B
2016Revenue 3.8BOperating income 677.3M
2017Revenue 4.0BOperating income 700.4M
2018Revenue 4.2BOperating income 690.7M
2019Revenue 4.7BOperating income 884.9M
2020Revenue 4.7BOperating income 1.0B
2021Revenue 5.4BOperating income 973.8M
2022Revenue 6.2BOperating income 1.2B
2023Revenue 5.9BOperating income 1.3B
2024Revenue 5.7BOperating income 2.5B
2025Revenue 6.2BOperating income 1.4B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
-0.1%
+5.4%
+5.4%
Operating income
+6.0%
+7.4%
+8.7%
Net income
+9.5%
+9.5%
+11.5%
Earnings per share
+10.6%
+10.2%
+12.2%
Free cash flow per share
+25.6%
+7.8%
+14.6%
Dividend per share
+8.3%
+7.7%
+7.9%
Shares
-1.0%
-0.6%
-0.6%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
Return on invested capitalCost of capital today · 8.1%
0.0%5.0%10.0%15.0%
2016Return on invested capital 8.1%
2017Return on invested capital 7.7%
2018Return on invested capital 7.0%
2019Return on invested capital 8.9%
2020Return on invested capital 9.6%
2021Return on invested capital 6.9%
2022Return on invested capital 7.8%
2023Return on invested capital 8.7%
2024Return on invested capital 12.8%
2025Return on invested capital 7.6%
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Economic profit
Economic profit
-250.0M0250.0M500.0M750.0M
2016Economic profit 2.7M
2017Economic profit -30.9M
2018Economic profit -89.5M
2019Economic profit 65.6M
2020Economic profit 125.3M
2021Economic profit -143.2M
2022Economic profit -42.2M
2023Economic profit 75.7M
2024Economic profit 698.4M
2025Economic profit -83.5M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
(return on capital − cost of capital) × capital invested: the profit left after paying for the money used. Today's cost of capital is applied to every year, since a past one cannot be rebuilt honestly.
Return on equity
11.3%
Return on assets
6.1%
Asset turnover
0.33×
Overheads (SG&A)
7.2% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
0500.0M1.0B1.5B2.0B
2016Net income 425.4MFree cash flow 301.7MAfter stock-based pay 281.2M
2017Net income 713.3MFree cash flow 247.3MAfter stock-based pay 216.8M
2018Net income 470.0MFree cash flow 329.1MAfter stock-based pay 299.8M
2019Net income 611.9MFree cash flow 572.6MAfter stock-based pay 538.5M
2020Net income 721.0MFree cash flow 690.4MAfter stock-based pay 660.4M
2021Net income 702.5MFree cash flow 714.6MAfter stock-based pay 671.6M
2022Net income 867.0MFree cash flow 509.0MAfter stock-based pay 466.0M
2023Net income 1.2BFree cash flow 878.0MAfter stock-based pay 828.0M
2024Net income 2.0BFree cash flow 604.0MAfter stock-based pay 546.0M
2025Net income 1.1BFree cash flow 978.0MAfter stock-based pay 932.0M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
11.0B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 47%5.1B
Acquisitions 85%9.3B
Dividends 13%1.5B
Share buybacks 16%1.8B
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -62%-6.8B
Over the same years it paid 384.4M in stock. The share count fell 5.1%. 1.4B of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$0.00$10.00$20.00$30.00$40.00
2016Earnings per share $6.66Free cash flow per share $4.72Dividend per share $1.64
2017Earnings per share $11.29Free cash flow per share $3.91Dividend per share $1.72
2018Earnings per share $7.45Free cash flow per share $5.22Dividend per share $1.84
2019Earnings per share $9.76Free cash flow per share $9.13Dividend per share $2.07
2020Earnings per share $11.55Free cash flow per share $11.06Dividend per share $2.25
2021Earnings per share $11.22Free cash flow per share $11.42Dividend per share $2.36
2022Earnings per share $13.87Free cash flow per share $8.14Dividend per share $2.56
2023Earnings per share $18.82Free cash flow per share $14.14Dividend per share $2.80
2024Earnings per share $32.39Free cash flow per share $9.81Dividend per share $3.07
2025Earnings per share $18.76Free cash flow per share $16.14Dividend per share $3.25
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
60.0M61.0M62.0M63.0M64.0M
2016Diluted shares 63.9M
2017Diluted shares 63.2M
2018Diluted shares 63.1M
2019Diluted shares 62.7M
2020Diluted shares 62.4M
2021Diluted shares 62.6M
2022Diluted shares 62.5M
2023Diluted shares 62.1M
2024Diluted shares 61.6M
2025Diluted shares 60.6M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt
02.0B4.0B6.0B
2016Net debt 1.6B
2017Net debt 1.6B
2018Net debt 3.1B
2019Net debt 2.8B
2020Net debt 2.4B
2021Net debt 4.8B
2022Net debt 4.7B
2023Net debt 3.1B
2024Net debt 4.7B
2025Net debt 5.3B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
2.5×
Interest coverage
6× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
3.57 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
102 days collects in 43d, stock 92d, pays in 33d
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
8of 9 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
✓Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fellpassed
✓More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforepassed
✓No new sharesShare count did not growpassed
✓Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year beforepassed
✓Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforepassed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
3.65safe zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.12 × 6.56+0.81
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.34 × 3.26+1.12
Operating income ÷ assets 0.08 × 6.72+0.52
Equity ÷ liabilities 1.16 × 1.05+1.21
Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
-2.66below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 0.98+0.90
Gross margin slipping 0.94+0.50
Soft assets 0.84+0.34
Sales growth 1.09+0.97
Slower depreciation 0.96+0.11
Overheads vs sales 0.95-0.16
Profit not in cash -0.03-0.16
Leverage rising 0.96-0.31
Where it misleads: fast growth and acquisitions. Sales growth carries a heavy weight, so a company growing 50% a year scores like a suspect without having done anything. It is a screen from a 1999 study, not an accusation.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
None of the six cross-checks fires for the latest year: receivables and inventory move with revenue, profit turns into cash, investment keeps up with depreciation, the tax rate is ordinary and debt is moderate.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
Value per share, with these assumptions$302.64discounted at 8.1% a year · 60% of it from after year 10
Type a share price on the left to ask the reverse questions: what growth, what margin or what discount rate that price implies.
What the value implies, in the usual multiples
At this model's value
Price ÷ earnings
16.1×
Enterprise value ÷ EBITDA
11.4×
Enterprise value ÷ revenue
3.8×
Free cash flow yield
5.1%
From cash flows to a value per share
10 years of cash flow, today9.5B
Everything after, today14.1B
The whole business23.6B
Minus net debt-5.3B
What belongs to shareholders18.3B
Divided among 60.6M shares: <strong>$302.64</strong> each.
The projection next to its history
Reported free cash flow after stock pay, then the model's. A projection that looks nothing like the past needs a reason.
ReportedProjected
0500.0M1.0B1.5B2.0B
2016Reported 281.2M
2017Reported 216.8M
2018Reported 299.8M
2019Reported 538.5M
2020Reported 660.4M
2021Reported 671.6M
2022Reported 466.0M
2023Reported 828.0M
2024Reported 546.0M
2025Reported 932.0M
2026Projected 1.2B
2027Projected 1.3B
2028Projected 1.3B
2029Projected 1.4B
2030Projected 1.4B
2031Projected 1.5B
2032Projected 1.5B
2033Projected 1.6B
2034Projected 1.6B
2035Projected 1.7B
2016201820202022202420262028203020322034
Year by year
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034
2035
Revenue
6.5B
6.8B
7.2B
7.5B
7.8B
8.1B
8.4B
8.6B
8.9B
9.1B
Growth
5.5%
5.2%
4.8%
4.5%
4.2%
3.8%
3.5%
3.2%
2.8%
2.5%
Cash margin
18.5%
18.5%
18.5%
18.5%
18.5%
18.5%
18.5%
18.5%
18.5%
18.5%
Free cash flow
1.2B
1.3B
1.3B
1.4B
1.4B
1.5B
1.5B
1.6B
1.6B
1.7B
Worth today
1.1B
1.1B
1.0B
1.0B
973.9M
935.5M
895.7M
854.8M
813.1M
771.0M
If the least-known inputs move
Value per share as two inputs change at a time. Neighbouring cells that differ a lot are the conclusion: the value depends on numbers nobody knows to a point.
The discount rate and growth forever
discount ↓ · forever →
1.5%
2.0%
2.5%
3.0%
3.5%
7.1%
316
349
389
438
502
7.6%
282
309
341
381
429
8.1%
254
276
303
334
373
8.6%
229
248
270
296
327
9.1%
208
224
243
264
290
Year-one growth and the final margin
margin ↓ · growth →
1.5%
3.5%
5.5%
7.5%
9.5%
14.8%
190
214
240
268
298
16.6%
216
243
271
302
336
18.5%
242
271
303
337
373
20.3%
268
300
334
371
411
22.2%
294
328
365
406
449
All the inputs moving at once
5,000 valuations, each with growth, final margin, discount rate and growth forever drawn at random around the values on the left (spreads of 3.0%, 2.8%, 1.0% and 0.5%). Not a probability — the spreads are assumptions too — but an honest picture of how wide the answer is.
10th percentile$199.11
Median$303.24
90th percentile$475.94
$200.00$400.00$600.00
Half of the simulations land between <b>$243.47</b> and <b>$382.00</b>; one in ten below $199.11, one in ten above $475.94.
Does the long run make sense?
10.0×The terminal value prices the business in year 10 at 10.0 times that year's EBITDA.
117%To grow 2.5% forever while reinvesting 2% of its after-tax operating profit, the business must earn 117% on the new capital — it has earned 9% on average over the last five years.
60%of the value comes from after year 10. The more of it, the more the answer depends on the part nobody can see.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.