Matson, Inc. (MATX) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 8th

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 9th will be paid a dividend of 0.32 per share by the shipping company on Thursday, June 6th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 8th.

Matson has increased its dividend payment by an average of 11.9% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 12 years. Matson has a payout ratio of 14.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Matson to earn $7.91 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.2%.

Matson Trading Up 3.9 %

Shares of NYSE MATX opened at $113.36 on Monday. Matson has a 1-year low of $62.71 and a 1-year high of $122.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The business’s 50 day moving average is $108.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $106.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.37 and a beta of 1.12.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The shipping company reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $722.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.44 million. Matson had a return on equity of 12.66% and a net margin of 9.61%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.94 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Matson will post 8.51 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Christopher A. Scott sold 1,171 shares of Matson stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.83, for a total transaction of $126,268.93. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,397,261.14. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 2.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MATX. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Matson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Matson from $109.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st.

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.