Matson, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.34 (NYSE:MATX)

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th will be given a dividend of 0.34 per share by the shipping company on Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%.

Matson has increased its dividend by an average of 7.6% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 12 years. Matson has a payout ratio of 14.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Matson to earn $9.80 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 13.9%.

Matson Price Performance

MATX opened at $138.62 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $144.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $138.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.53 and a beta of 1.07. Matson has a 52-week low of $100.50 and a 52-week high of $169.12.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The shipping company reported $5.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.98 by $0.91. The company had revenue of $962.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $965.73 million. Matson had a net margin of 12.37% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.40 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Matson will post 13.19 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on MATX shares. Wolfe Research cut Matson from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Matson in a report on Thursday, January 2nd.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Matson news, EVP Rusty K. Rolfe sold 3,000 shares of Matson stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.97, for a total transaction of $497,910.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 21,871 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,629,929.87. The trade was a 12.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Leonard P. Isotoff sold 492 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.26, for a total transaction of $79,339.92. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,254 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $686,000.04. This trade represents a 10.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 9,646 shares of company stock valued at $1,578,768. 2.32% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.