12:35 AM EDT, 04/12/2024 (MT Newswires) -- CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:

We increase our 12-month target price by $78 to $672, which assumes MLM will trade at an EV/EBITDA of 16.5x our 2025 EBITDA estimate, a premium to MLM's three-year average forward EV/EBITDA of 15.6x, which is justified by our outlook for significant demand growth and MLM's pricing power in its aggregates business. We raise our 2024 EPS estimate by $0.46 to $21.55 and our 2025 EPS forecast by $0.54 to $24.07. We think infrastructure investment in the U.S. is one of the most compelling secular themes in the next decade and MLM is well positioned geographically to outperform peers. We are impressed with the robust unit profitability growth in 2023 despite lower shipment volume; gross profit per ton increased 46% Y/Y to $6.93. In 2024, we forecast volumes to be flat, but average selling price to increase 10-12% Y/Y and gross profit per ton to increase by 20-24%. Infrastructure funding continues to be a tailwind, as the aggregate DOT budgets in MLM's top-10 states increased 10% Y/Y for 2024.