Texas Permanent School Fund Reduces Stock Holdings in Marten Transport, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRTN)

Texas Permanent School Fund reduced its stake in shares of Marten Transport, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRTN – Get Rating) by 6.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 38,710 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 2,663 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund’s holdings in Marten Transport were worth $766,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Group One Trading L.P. purchased a new stake in Marten Transport during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Marten Transport during the 1st quarter worth approximately $47,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its holdings in Marten Transport by 63.3% during the 3rd quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,865 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 1,111 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in Marten Transport by 108.6% during the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 3,790 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,973 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in Marten Transport during the 1st quarter worth approximately $104,000. 68.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Thomas J. Winkel sold 5,313 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.12, for a total value of $106,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 53,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,079,920.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 22.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded Marten Transport from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th.

Marten Transport Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ MRTN opened at $20.55 on Wednesday. Marten Transport, Ltd. has a twelve month low of $16.00 and a twelve month high of $23.43. The company has a market capitalization of $1.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.81 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $20.75.

Marten Transport (NASDAQ:MRTN – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 18th. The transportation company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.01. Marten Transport had a return on equity of 15.22% and a net margin of 8.26%. The business had revenue of $298.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $306.10 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.33 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Marten Transport, Ltd. will post 1.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Marten Transport Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 16th will be issued a $0.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 15th. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.17%. Marten Transport’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.46%.

About Marten Transport

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Marten Transport Ltd. engages in the provision of temperature-sensitive truckload carrier services. It operates through the following segments: Truckload, Dedicated, Intermodal and Brokerage. The Truckload segment includes transport of food and consumer packaged goods that require a temperature-controlled or insulated environment.