Stephens Reiterates Overweight Rating for Matson (NYSE:MATX)

Matson (NYSE:MATX)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Stephens in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $165.00 price target on the shipping company’s stock. Stephens’ price objective would suggest a potential upside of 22.37% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Matson from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com cut Matson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th.

Matson Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of MATX opened at $134.84 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $148.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $137.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.22 and a beta of 1.04. Matson has a one year low of $100.50 and a one year high of $169.12.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The shipping company reported $5.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.98 by $0.91. The firm had revenue of $962.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $965.73 million. Matson had a net margin of 12.37% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.40 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Matson will post 13.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Matson

In other news, SVP Leonard P. Isotoff sold 492 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.26, for a total value of $79,339.92. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,254 shares in the company, valued at approximately $686,000.04. This represents a 10.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP John Warren Sullivan sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.50, for a total value of $124,125.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,745 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,109,297.50. The trade was a 5.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 9,646 shares of company stock valued at $1,578,768. 2.32% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Matson

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MATX. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Matson by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 911,827 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $119,422,000 after buying an additional 36,901 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Matson by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 395,716 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $56,437,000 after buying an additional 20,568 shares during the last quarter. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Matson by 52.1% in the 2nd quarter. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC now owns 356,416 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $46,680,000 after acquiring an additional 122,017 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Matson by 10.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 286,968 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $40,927,000 after acquiring an additional 26,366 shares in the last quarter. 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.