AXQ Capital LP Takes Position in Matson, Inc. $MATX

AXQ Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,914 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $324,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MATX. Cerity Partners LLC raised its holdings in Matson by 4.6% during the first quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 2,637 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $338,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH increased its position in shares of Matson by 10.3% during the first quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 28,644 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $3,671,000 after acquiring an additional 2,671 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Matson by 14.3% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 4,069 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $522,000 after acquiring an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in Matson by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 54,183 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $6,945,000 after acquiring an additional 4,019 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ bought a new position in Matson in the 1st quarter valued at about $461,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on shares of Matson in a report on Friday, August 1st. Zacks Research raised Matson from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Stephens raised their price objective on Matson from $160.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Matson from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $142.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Matson in a report on Monday, November 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.75.

Matson Stock Performance

Shares of MATX stock opened at $105.17 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The firm has a market cap of $3.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.11 and a beta of 1.32. Matson, Inc. has a 52 week low of $86.97 and a 52 week high of $158.16. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $100.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $106.33.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The shipping company reported $4.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.25 by $0.99. Matson had a net margin of 14.26% and a return on equity of 18.90%. The company had revenue of $880.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $837.72 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.89 EPS. Matson’s quarterly revenue was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Matson, Inc. will post 13.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Matson Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 6th will be given a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 6th. Matson’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.96%.

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.