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

Marten Transport, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRTN) declared 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% per year 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 opened at $14.47 on Tuesday. Marten Transport has a 1 year low of $14.42 and a 1 year high of $19.51. The stock has a market cap of $1.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.56 and a beta of 0.83. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $15.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.50.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Marten Transport Company Profile

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.