John P. Lauer Sells 7,985 Shares of Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) Stock

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) EVP John P. Lauer sold 7,985 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.73, for a total transaction of $1,075,819.05. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 25,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,394,118.16. This represents a 24.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Matson Stock Down 0.2 %

MATX opened at $133.02 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $139.50 and a 200 day moving average of $141.36. The company has a market cap of $4.42 billion, a PE ratio of 11.07 and a beta of 1.05. Matson, Inc. has a 12 month low of $100.50 and a 12 month high of $169.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The shipping company reported $3.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.20 by $0.60. The company had revenue of $890.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $851.78 million. Matson had a net margin of 12.37% and a return on equity of 16.89%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Matson, Inc. will post 13.27 EPS for the current year.

Matson Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th were issued a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 6th. Matson’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.69%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of MATX. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Matson by 4,167,726.1% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 958,600 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $136,716,000 after purchasing an additional 958,577 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Matson in the 4th quarter valued at $35,016,000. Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC bought a new position in Matson in the 4th quarter valued at $34,897,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Matson by 73.9% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 416,473 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $56,157,000 after purchasing an additional 177,000 shares during the period. Finally, Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC bought a new position in Matson in the 4th quarter valued at $20,204,000. 84.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Matson from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Stephens increased their target price on shares of Matson from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Matson from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th.

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.