Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) CFO Sells $1,151,600.80 in Stock

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) CFO Joel M. Wine sold 8,941 shares of Matson stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.80, for a total transaction of $1,151,600.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 151,329 shares in the company, valued at $19,491,175.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Matson Stock Performance

Matson stock traded up $1.78 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $130.73. 156,389 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 262,887. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $117.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $113.56. Matson, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $74.04 and a fifty-two week high of $133.53. The stock has a market cap of $4.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.35 and a beta of 1.11.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The shipping company reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $722.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.44 million. Matson had a net margin of 9.61% and a return on equity of 12.66%. Matson’s revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.94 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Matson, Inc. will post 10.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Matson Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MATX has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Matson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Matson from $109.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $135.00 price target on shares of Matson in a research note on Friday, May 24th.

Institutional Trading of Matson

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MATX. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Matson by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,984,076 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $447,810,000 after purchasing an additional 215,452 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Matson by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,658,613 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $291,386,000 after purchasing an additional 43,846 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Matson by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 653,613 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $57,989,000 after purchasing an additional 65,736 shares during the last quarter. London Co. of Virginia boosted its position in Matson by 1.5% in the third quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 303,948 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $26,966,000 after buying an additional 4,455 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Matson by 25.5% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 293,163 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $32,131,000 after buying an additional 59,652 shares during the last quarter. 84.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.