Insider Selling: Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) CEO Sells 7,843 Shares of Stock

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) CEO Matthew J. Cox sold 7,843 shares of Matson stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.54, for a total value of $1,023,825.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 230,397 shares in the company, valued at $30,076,024.38. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Matson Trading Up 1.6 %

MATX stock opened at $130.97 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $4.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.44 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $118.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $113.88. Matson, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $74.04 and a fifty-two week high of $133.53.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.05. Matson had a return on equity of 12.66% and a net margin of 9.61%. The business had revenue of $722.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.44 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.94 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Matson, Inc. will post 10.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Matson Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. This is a boost from Matson’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 1st. Matson’s dividend payout ratio is 15.09%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Matson from $109.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. StockNews.com raised shares of Matson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 24th. Finally, Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 price target on shares of Matson in a report on Friday, May 24th.

Institutional Trading of Matson

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Matson during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. USA Financial Formulas bought a new stake in shares of Matson during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Security National Bank acquired a new position in shares of Matson during the fourth quarter valued at $36,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Matson by 109.6% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 415 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Evermay Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Matson in the fourth quarter worth about $66,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.76% of the company’s stock.

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.