New York State Teachers Retirement System Acquires 735 Shares of Matthews International Co. (NASDAQ:MATW)

New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in Matthews International Co. (NASDAQ:MATW) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 63,068 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 735 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Matthews International were worth $2,311,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Matthews International by 0.7% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 35,318 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,505,000 after buying an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of Matthews International by 92.3% in the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 854 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 410 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Matthews International by 2.1% in the first quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 19,884 shares of the company’s stock valued at $643,000 after buying an additional 414 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its stake in shares of Matthews International by 97.7% in the first quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 858 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 424 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Matthews International by 7.8% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,969 shares of the company’s stock valued at $297,000 after purchasing an additional 505 shares in the last quarter. 83.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Matthews International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. B. Riley dropped their price target on shares of Matthews International from $61.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 5th.

Matthews International Stock Performance

Shares of MATW stock opened at $26.63 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $817.01 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.12 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.88. Matthews International Co. has a 52 week low of $26.31 and a 52 week high of $48.86. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.44.

Matthews International (NASDAQ:MATW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.37. The business had revenue of $449.99 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $437.77 million. Matthews International had a net margin of 1.77% and a return on equity of 16.44%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Matthews International Co. will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Matthews International Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 19th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 5th were paid a $0.24 dividend. This is an increase from Matthews International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 2nd. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.60%. Matthews International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.57%.

Matthews International Profile

Matthews International Corporation provides brand solutions, memorialization products, and industrial technologies worldwide. It operates through three segments: Memorialization, Industrial Technologies, and SGK Brand Solutions. The Memorialization segment provides bronze and granite memorials, upright granite memorials and monuments, concrete burial vaults, cremation memorialization products, granite benches, flower vases, crypt plates and letters, cremation urns, niche units, cemetery features, and statues, as well as bronze plaques, letters, emblems, vases, lights and photo ceramics, granite monuments, mausoleums, crypts, and flush memorials.