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

Marten Transport, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRTN) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, February 24th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.06 per share by the transportation company on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th.

Marten Transport has increased its dividend by an average of 14.5% annually over the last three years. Marten Transport has a payout ratio of 34.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Marten Transport to earn $0.71 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 33.8%.

Marten Transport Trading Down 2.7 %

Shares of MRTN stock traded down $0.40 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $14.47. The stock had a trading volume of 729,573 shares, compared to its average volume of 431,128. Marten Transport has a 1-year low of $14.42 and a 1-year high of $19.51. The firm has a market cap of $1.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.56 and a beta of 0.83. The business’s fifty day moving average is $15.60 and its 200-day moving average is $16.52.

Marten Transport (NASDAQ:MRTN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The transportation company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by $0.01. Marten Transport had a net margin of 2.79% and a return on equity of 3.52%. On average, analysts forecast that Marten Transport will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Stephens upped their price target on shares of Marten Transport from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th.

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.