Marten Transport, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRTN) Plans $0.06 Quarterly Dividend

Marten Transport, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRTN) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 29th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.06 per share by the transportation company on Friday, December 27th. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th.

Marten Transport has raised its dividend by an average of 21.6% annually over the last three years. Marten Transport has a dividend payout ratio of 47.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Marten Transport to earn $0.47 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.24 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 51.1%.

Marten Transport Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Marten Transport stock traded up $0.10 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $17.38. 139,156 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 400,739. The business has a 50-day moving average of $16.83 and a 200 day moving average of $17.36. Marten Transport has a fifty-two week low of $15.33 and a fifty-two week high of $21.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.42 billion, a PE ratio of 41.14 and a beta of 0.79.

Marten Transport (NASDAQ:MRTN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The transportation company reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by ($0.02). Marten Transport had a net margin of 3.36% and a return on equity of 4.41%. The firm had revenue of $237.37 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $244.00 million. On average, equities research analysts expect that Marten Transport will post 0.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com cut Marten Transport from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Raymond James cut Marten Transport from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th.

Insider Activity at Marten Transport

In other Marten Transport news, Director Jerry M. Bauer purchased 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $15.81 per share, with a total value of $158,100.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 156,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,473,379.64. This represents a 6.83 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 22.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Marten Transport

Marten Transport, Ltd. operates as a temperature-sensitive truckload carrier for shippers in the United State, Mexico, and Canada. The company operates through four segments: Truckload, Dedicated, Intermodal, and Brokerage. The Truckload segment transports food and other consumer packaged goods that require a temperature-controlled or insulated environment, as well as dry freight; and regional short-haul and medium-to-long-haul full-load transportation services.