Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) CEO Matthew J. Cox Sells 7,843 Shares

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) CEO Matthew J. Cox sold 7,843 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.54, for a total value of $1,023,825.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 230,397 shares in the company, valued at $30,076,024.38. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Matson Trading Up 1.6 %

Matson stock traded up $2.02 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $130.97. 428,447 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 265,112. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.44 and a beta of 1.11. Matson, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $74.04 and a fifty-two week high of $133.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $118.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $113.77.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The shipping company reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.05. Matson had a return on equity of 12.66% and a net margin of 9.61%. The firm had revenue of $722.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.44 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.94 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Matson, Inc. will post 10.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Matson Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 1st will be paid a $0.34 dividend. This is an increase from Matson’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.04%. Matson’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.09%.

Institutional Trading of Matson

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Matson by 25.4% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 60,648 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $5,381,000 after acquiring an additional 12,285 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Matson by 36.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 94,448 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $8,379,000 after acquiring an additional 25,121 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Matson by 12.6% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 285,314 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $25,313,000 after acquiring an additional 31,833 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its position in shares of Matson by 94.8% in the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 21,440 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $1,911,000 after acquiring an additional 10,433 shares during the last quarter. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Matson by 105.0% during the third quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 37,379 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $3,316,000 after purchasing an additional 19,149 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on MATX. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Matson in a research note on Friday, May 24th. StockNews.com raised Matson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Matson from $109.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st.

Matson Company Profile

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.