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

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 24th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 7th will be given a dividend of 0.34 per share by the shipping company on Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 7th.

Matson has raised its dividend by an average of 11.9% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Matson has a payout ratio of 14.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Matson to earn $9.11 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 14.9%.

Matson Trading Down 0.0 %

NYSE:MATX opened at $133.31 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.72 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $135.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $126.16. Matson has a 12-month low of $82.68 and a 12-month high of $144.93.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The shipping company reported $3.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $847.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $861.68 million. Matson had a return on equity of 13.87% and a net margin of 10.41%. Equities analysts anticipate that Matson will post 11.45 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Matson

In related news, SVP Richard S. Kinney sold 1,615 shares of Matson stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.62, for a total value of $215,796.30. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,973 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,352.26. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Matson news, EVP Peter T. Heilmann sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.37, for a total transaction of $1,293,700.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 38,356 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,962,115.72. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Richard S. Kinney sold 1,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.62, for a total value of $215,796.30. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 7,973 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,065,352.26. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 49,736 shares of company stock worth $6,672,494 over the last three months. 2.32% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Stephens lifted their price target on Matson from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded Matson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th.

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.