Marten Transport (NASDAQ:MRTN) shares fell over 5% on Tuesday after Vertical Research downgraded the truckload carrier to Hold from Buy and lowered its EPS expectation.
The brokerage, which reduced PT to $19 from $22, continues to believe that Marten is a premium story within the truckload marketplace, but the environment in truckload is more difficult than it anticipated and the duration of the downcycle is proving to be longer than its expectation.
Against that backdrop, truckload carriers are unable to defend earnings attrition as Vertical expected, it added.
Vertical also reduced its 2024e EPS from $0.70 to $0.56, while it’s lowered its 2025e EPS by 20% to $0.80.
Earlier in April, the company’s first quarter results missed analysts’ expectations.
Wall Street analysts are bullish and rated the stock a Buy, while Seeking Alpha’s Quant rating considers it a Strong Sell, with a score of 2.02 out of 5.
Shares of the Wisconsin-based company were trading at $16.82 in the morning. Overall, it has lost over 19% so far this year.