Marten Transport, Ltd. (MRTN) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.06 on September 30th

Marten Transport, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRTN) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, August 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 16th will be given a dividend of 0.06 per share by the transportation company on Wednesday, September 30th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 16th.

Marten Transport has decreased its dividend by an average of 0.2%annually over the last three years. Marten Transport has a payout ratio of 46.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Marten Transport to earn $0.70 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 34.3%.

Marten Transport Price Performance

NASDAQ MRTN opened at $14.83 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.21 billion, a PE ratio of 87.24 and a beta of 0.95. Marten Transport has a 1-year low of $9.35 and a 1-year high of $18.48. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.09.

Marten Transport (NASDAQ:MRTN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The transportation company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by ($0.01). Marten Transport had a return on equity of 1.65% and a net margin of 1.47%.The company had revenue of $223.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $227.10 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.09 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Marten Transport will post 0.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on MRTN shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Marten Transport in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Stephens lowered their price objective on Marten Transport from $18.00 to $16.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Marten Transport has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $16.00.

About Marten Transport

Marten Transport, Inc is a North American transportation services provider offering temperature-controlled and dry van truckload services. Founded in 1946 and headquartered in Mondovi, Wisconsin, the company specializes in full truckload, dedicated contract carriage, intermodal and port drayage solutions. Its core focus on refrigerated and produce freight has made it a key partner for food manufacturers, retailers and other shippers requiring strict temperature management.

The company maintains a modern fleet of tractors and trailers equipped with advanced telematics, electronic logging devices and continuous temperature monitoring.