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

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

Marten Transport has raised its dividend payment by an average of 14.5% per year over the last three years. Marten Transport has a payout ratio of 34.8% indicating that 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 Stock Down 2.7 %

NASDAQ:MRTN traded down $0.40 on Monday, hitting $14.47. The stock had a trading volume of 729,573 shares, compared to its average volume of 431,128. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $15.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $16.52. The stock has a market cap of $1.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.56 and a beta of 0.83. Marten Transport has a 1-year low of $14.42 and a 1-year high of $19.51.

Marten Transport (NASDAQ:MRTN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The transportation company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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, analysts anticipate that Marten Transport will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Stephens raised their price objective on Marten Transport from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research 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.