Jul 30, 2026 earnings call — Announced planned combination with Lhoist North America
Raised full year revenue guidance to $7.2 billion to $7.4 billion and reaffirmed adjusted EBITDA guidance of $2.36 billion to $2.5 billion.
Revenue $1.9B (est $1.9B) · EPS $5.00 (est $4.76)
Key quotes
"Most recently, we announced a transformational agreement to combine with Lhoist North America, Inc., or LNA, the nation's leading producer of lime and industrial mineral products."
"Operationally, we identified approximately $350 million of run rate pretax cash flow improvement opportunities driven by enhanced asset utilization, network optimization and lower sustaining capital requirements."
"Based on our strong first half performance and continued momentum, we're raising our full year revenue guidance $7.2 billion to $7.4 billion and reaffirming our adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations guidance of $2.36 billion to $2.5 billion."
Analyst Q&A 11
organic aggregates performance
Q (Adam Thalhimer · Thompson Davis): He asked how the organic aggregates business performed if you strip out deals.
A: Management said organic volume was up 2.3% and mix-adjusted pricing was up 3.7%. They noted COGS were up just 2.1% excluding pass-through external freight, energy spikes affected results, and organic gross profit was up about 4.3%.
"So number one, I would say it was very strong, and here are the reasons why organic volume was up 2.3%." — C. Nye (CEO·CHAIR)
Lhoist deal risks and opportunities
Q (Kathryn Thompson · Thompson Research Group): She asked what risks and opportunities the company sees today for the Lhoist acquisition.
A: Management said the deal gives them the leading U.S. producer of dolomitic and high-calcium lime with a southern U.S. footprint of 20 quarries, 45 distribution terminals, and mission-critical end markets. They called the businesses highly complementary, said integration risk is low because Lhoist operates almost independently, and said the risks are manageable while they work to close the deal.
"One is the market leader, and it's in the southern half of the United States." — C. Nye (CEO·CHAIR)
full-year guide drivers
Q (Trey Grooms · Stephens): He asked why revenue guide rose but EBITDA range was reiterated and what are the main puts and takes.
A: Management said shipments are trending toward the high end while pricing is toward the low end, and they are conservatively assuming energy does not improve in H2. Michael said New Frontier contributions should largely offset elevated diesel costs, organic volumes are trending toward the high end, and midyear pricing realization will be strong for New Frontier and Quikrete.
"In a nutshell, what we're saying is the contributions to EBITDA from New Frontier should largely offset continued elevated diesel costs." — Michael Petro (CFO)
pricing outlook into 2027
Q (Patrick Brown · Raymond James): He asked why reported pricing shouldn't improve next year given mix, midyear effects, harmonization, and Precise IQ.
A: Management agreed and said mix-adjusted pricing is what matters; they emphasized seeing mix-adjusted pricing trending toward 4%. They added that by 2027 most purchase-price inventory issues will be behind them so reported numbers should be cleaner and the pricing story could be compelling.
"What means something is really what's happening relative to mix adjusted pricing, and that's why seeing that trending toward 4% is more important than that." — C. Nye (CEO·CHAIR)
$350 million cash saves details
Q (Jesse Barone · Jefferies): He asked which mix headwinds affected Q2 pricing and how to contextualize the $350 million cash savings into earnings or per-ton terms.
A: Michael said headline ASP was down 2% with 400 basis points from acquisition mix, and organic ASP had about 160 basis points of geo mix impact; he also said you can model OpEx, working capital (inventory), and CapEx buckets to back into the $350 million. Ward added they expect the $350 million as an exiting '27 number and they may increase it over time.
"So if you think headline was down 2%, 400 basis points of that was acquisition mix." — Michael Petro (CFO)
Magnesia guidance and weather impact
Q (Timna Tanners · Wells Fargo): She asked if Magnesia Specialties could annualize Q2 strength and how much weather hit Q2 and Q3 potential.
A: Michael said Q2 specialties outperformance implies you can roughly plug in $50 million for Q3 and Q4 and that is a reasonable modeling assumption. On weather he said the Southeast and parts of North Carolina were notably impacted on a comp basis and Texas was the most impacted in Q2, but pushed projects are starting to pick up in H2 with escalators, and July shipment trends support their guide.
"On the weather, yes, the Southeast, I wouldn't say on a comp basis to prior year, it was notably impacted." — Michael Petro (CFO)
backlog converting to awards
Q (Esther Osinaiya · Morgan Stanley): She asked how backlog and quoting have been converting to awards, especially private and commercial, and if customers are pulling work forward or pushing it out.
A: Management said they are not seeing work being pushed off; work is continuing to flow through. They reported strong private commercial bidding and backlog, with data centers up 90%, power up 23%, and warehousing up 53%, and noted a meaningful share of that activity is near Martin Marietta locations.
"No, we're not seeing anything pushed off now." — C. Nye (CEO·CHAIR)
Q3 pricing and COGS actions
Q (Steven Fisher · UBS): He wanted to know if Q3 pricing will be lower than Q2's 3.7% mix-adjusted and what actions drove flat COGS excluding fuel and if that is sustainable.
A: Michael said most per-ton cost line items declined year-over-year except energy and energy-derived freight, citing labor, repairs, and overhead down. He said organic ASP should be mid-single digits in remaining quarters but headline ASP will look lower due to New Frontier mix in H2; they will continue to be transparent on acquisition mix to show underlying performance.
"If you look at labor per ton, that was down year-over-year." — Michael Petro (CFO)
infrastructure funding outlook
Q (Michael Dudas · Vertical Research Partners): He asked if something will get done in Washington on infrastructure funding before December 31 and whether a CR is likely.
A: Management said a short-term extension is pragmatic and they expect a multiyear arrangement will be negotiated, with a significant push to have something by December 31. They think policy makers want program continuity, expect the final structure to be more highways/bridges/roads focused, and do not expect material disruption to business this year or into next.
"I think we're going to end up in a perfectly good spot and have that most aggregates-intensive portion of our business that tends to be -- you've heard me describe it before, is the ballast in the boat." — C. Nye (CEO·CHAIR)
future M&A strategy after Lhoist
Q (Ivan Yi · Wolfe): He asked whether digesting Lhoist means Martin is out for future core aggregates deals and how M&A strategy changes.
A: Management said the Lhoist deal does not change strategy; they expect mostly bolt-on aggregate transactions and structured the deal to preserve ability to pursue aggregate deals. They also said they will deleverage over 24 months, maintain investment-grade communication with rating agencies, and the Specialties businesses will complement the aggregate business.
"The fact is with the coast-to-coast footprint that we have now, in many respects, the aggregate transactions that we anticipate seeing the most of are nice, steady, consistent bolt-on aggregate transactions." — C. Nye (CEO·CHAIR)
Denver pilot and roll-out
Q (Garrett Samuel Greenblatt · JPMorgan): He asked for an update on the Denver pilot for the $350 million program and plans to roll it out to other markets.
A: Management said the Denver prototype is the model for the $350 million plan and they've already put about $200 million to work in inventory and CapEx actions. They will apply the Colorado playbook more broadly through network optimization led by Chris Samborski and expect to refine and likely increase the $350 million estimate over time.
"So we basically took what happened in Denver. We've used that as the prototype and pilot for what we're doing on the $350 million." — C. Nye (CEO·CHAIR)