Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Sells 231 Shares of Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) by 6.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,418 shares of the shipping company’s stock after selling 231 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Matson were worth $375,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MATX. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Matson by 78.5% during the 2nd quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 449,441 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $34,935,000 after buying an additional 197,658 shares in the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Matson during the 3rd quarter valued at about $14,074,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Matson by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,655,892 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $561,594,000 after buying an additional 153,723 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Matson by 313.2% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 193,400 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $2,652,000 after buying an additional 146,589 shares in the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Matson by 567.7% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 144,987 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $9,064,000 after buying an additional 123,272 shares in the last quarter. 84.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Matson from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. StockNews.com raised Matson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday.

Matson Stock Up 1.5 %

NYSE MATX opened at $106.22 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $110.55 and its 200 day moving average is $104.74. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Matson, Inc. has a 12 month low of $61.51 and a 12 month high of $122.99. The stock has a market cap of $3.66 billion, a PE ratio of 12.68 and a beta of 1.12.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The shipping company reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.10 EPS. Research analysts predict that Matson, Inc. will post 8.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Matson Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 8th were issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 7th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.21%. Matson’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.27%.

Insider Transactions at Matson

In other news, SVP Christopher A. Scott sold 1,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,397,261.14. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.32% of the company’s stock.

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.