Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) Receives $131.67 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $131.6667.

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on MATX shares. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Matson in a report on Friday, August 1st. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Matson from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Christopher A. Scott sold 1,044 shares of Matson stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.94, for a total transaction of $114,777.36. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 13,441 shares in the company, valued at $1,477,703.54. This trade represents a 7.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.05% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Matson

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Matson by 424.8% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 958,170 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $121,428,000 after purchasing an additional 775,600 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Matson in the second quarter valued at about $21,037,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Matson in the first quarter valued at about $23,325,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Matson by 14,218.7% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 175,977 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $22,555,000 after purchasing an additional 174,748 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Matson by 27.9% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 590,763 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $65,770,000 after purchasing an additional 128,994 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.76% of the company’s stock.

Matson Trading Down 3.6%

NYSE:MATX opened at $103.66 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $106.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $111.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. Matson has a 12 month low of $91.75 and a 12 month high of $169.12. The company has a market capitalization of $3.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.01 and a beta of 1.21.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The shipping company reported $2.92 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.18 by $0.74. Matson had a net margin of 14.26% and a return on equity of 18.90%. The firm had revenue of $830.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $727.30 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.31 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Matson will post 13.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Matson Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 7th were issued a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 7th. This is a positive change from Matson’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Matson’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.74%.

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.