Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.34

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th will be given a dividend of 0.34 per share by the shipping company on Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%.

Matson has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.6% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. Matson has a dividend payout ratio of 14.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Matson to earn $9.80 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 13.9%.

Matson Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MATX traded up $0.62 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $138.62. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 159,610 shares, compared to its average volume of 225,708. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $144.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $138.98. Matson has a fifty-two week low of $100.50 and a fifty-two week high of $169.12. 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 company has a market cap of $4.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.53 and a beta of 1.07.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The shipping company reported $5.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.98 by $0.91. The business had revenue of $962.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $965.73 million. Matson had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.37%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.40 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Matson will post 13.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on MATX shares. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Matson in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Matson from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th.

Insider Transactions at Matson

In other news, EVP Peter T. Heilmann sold 5,404 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.36, for a total transaction of $877,393.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 32,952 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,350,086.72. This represents a 14.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Rusty K. Rolfe sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.97, for a total transaction of $497,910.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 21,871 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,629,929.87. This represents a 12.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 9,646 shares of company stock valued at $1,578,768 in the last quarter. Insiders own 2.32% of the company’s stock.

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.