Insider Buying: Marten Transport, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRTN) Director Buys 10,000 Shares of Stock

Marten Transport, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRTN) Director Jerry M. Bauer acquired 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $15.81 per share, for a total transaction of $158,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 156,444 shares in the company, valued at $2,473,379.64. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Marten Transport Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of MRTN stock traded down $0.21 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $15.48. 249,307 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 403,020. Marten Transport, Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $15.33 and a fifty-two week high of $21.38. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $17.35. The stock has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.86 and a beta of 0.77.

Marten Transport Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Marten Transport’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.14%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nuance Investments LLC purchased a new position in Marten Transport in the first quarter valued at about $24,122,000. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. purchased a new position in Marten Transport in the second quarter valued at about $5,334,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Marten Transport by 13.1% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,402,776 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $25,881,000 after acquiring an additional 162,924 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Marten Transport by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,338,538 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $91,023,000 after acquiring an additional 132,407 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hodges Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Marten Transport during the second quarter worth about $2,124,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.12% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Vertical Research downgraded Marten Transport from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Raymond James downgraded Marten Transport from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Marten Transport from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd.

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.