William Blair Investment Management LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Marten Transport, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRTN)

William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Marten Transport, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRTN) by 2.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,492,142 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 31,303 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned approximately 1.83% of Marten Transport worth $23,292,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of MRTN. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of Marten Transport by 54.6% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,376 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $60,000 after buying an additional 1,192 shares in the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Marten Transport by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 2,627,111 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $46,500,000 after buying an additional 303,132 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Marten Transport in the 3rd quarter worth $181,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Marten Transport by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 940,431 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $16,646,000 after purchasing an additional 38,990 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in Marten Transport by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 217,232 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $3,845,000 after purchasing an additional 11,883 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.12% of the company’s stock.

Marten Transport Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of MRTN stock opened at $13.84 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.71 and a beta of 0.84. Marten Transport, Ltd. has a 52 week low of $13.52 and a 52 week high of $19.26. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $15.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.15.

Marten Transport (NASDAQ:MRTN) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The transportation company reported $0.07 earnings per share 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 anticipate that Marten Transport, Ltd. will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Marten Transport Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.73%. Marten Transport’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 70.59%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Marten Transport 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.