Matson (NYSE:MATX) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Matson (NYSE:MATX) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Saturday morning.

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Matson from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st.

Matson Price Performance

Shares of Matson stock opened at $107.48 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $110.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $104.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.83 and a beta of 1.12. Matson has a one year low of $61.51 and a one year high of $122.99.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The shipping company reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $788.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $733.60 million. Matson had a return on equity of 12.71% and a net margin of 9.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.10 EPS. Analysts forecast that Matson will post 8.2 EPS for the current year.

Matson Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 8th were paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 7th. Matson’s payout ratio is 15.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Matson

In other Matson news, SVP Christopher A. Scott sold 1,171 shares of Matson stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.83, for a total transaction of $126,268.93. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,958 shares in the company, valued at $1,397,261.14. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 2.32% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Matson

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Advisors Preferred LLC bought a new position in shares of Matson in the fourth quarter worth about $1,958,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Matson by 105.0% in the third quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 37,379 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $3,316,000 after acquiring an additional 19,149 shares during the period. Dark Forest Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Matson by 317.4% in the third quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 24,763 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $2,197,000 after acquiring an additional 18,830 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Matson by 25.4% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 60,648 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $5,381,000 after acquiring an additional 12,285 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its stake in shares of Matson by 178.9% in the third quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 9,311 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $826,000 after acquiring an additional 5,973 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.76% of the company’s stock.

Matson Company Profile

Matson, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of ocean transportation and logistics services. It operates through two segments, Ocean Transportation and Logistics. The Ocean Transportation segment offers ocean freight transportation services to the domestic non-contiguous economies of Hawaii, Japan, Alaska, and Guam, as well as to other island economies in Micronesia.