Martin Marietta Materials is a natural resource-based building materials company. Co. supplies aggregates (crushed stone, sand and gravel) through its network of quarries, mines and distribution yards. Co. also provides cement and downstream products, namely, ready mixed concrete, asphalt and paving services. Co. conducts its Building Materials business through two segments: East Group and West Group. The East Group provides aggregates and asphalt products only. The West Group provides aggregates, cement and downstream products. Co.'s Magnesia Specialties business is reported as a separate segment, which includes its magnesia-based chemicals and dolomitic lime businesses.
When researching a stock like Martin Marietta Materials, many investors are the most familiar with Fundamental Analysis — looking at a company's balance sheet, earnings, revenues, and what's happening in that company's underlying business. Investors who use Fundamental Analysis to identify good stocks to buy or sell can also benefit from MLM Technical Analysis to help find a good entry or exit point. Technical Analysis is blind to the fundamentals and looks only at the trading data for MLM stock — the real life supply and demand for the stock over time — and examines that data in different ways. One of these ways is called the Relative Strength Index, or RSI. This popular indicator, originally developed in the 1970's by J. Welles Wilder, looks at a 14-day moving average of a stock's gains on its up days, versus its losses on its down days. The resulting MLM RSI is a value that measures momentum, oscillating between "oversold" and "overbought" on a scale of zero to 100. A reading below 30 is viewed to be oversold, which a bullish investor could look to as a sign that the selling is in the process of exhausting itself, and look for entry point opportunities. A reading above 70 is viewed to be overbought, which could indicate that a rally in progress is starting to get crowded with buyers. If the rally has been a long one, that could be a sign that a pullback is overdue. |