Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Trims Stake in Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lowered its stake in Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,807 shares of the shipping company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Matson were worth $1,053,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Matson by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 16,217 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $2,313,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Matson by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,645 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $2,244,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Matson by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 2,972 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $401,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Matson by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 2,283 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $326,000 after buying an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its stake in shares of Matson by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 1,663 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $237,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on MATX shares. Stephens upped their price target on Matson from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Matson from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Wolfe Research cut Matson from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th.

Matson Stock Performance

MATX stock opened at $144.07 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.78 billion, a PE ratio of 11.99 and a beta of 1.05. Matson, Inc. has a 12-month low of $100.50 and a 12-month high of $169.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $139.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $141.20.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The shipping company reported $3.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.20 by $0.60. The firm had revenue of $890.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $851.78 million. Matson had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.37%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Matson, Inc. will post 13.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Matson Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.94%. Matson’s payout ratio is 9.69%.

About Matson

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.