Matson, Inc. (MATX) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.34 on September 5th

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, June 27th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.34 per share by the shipping company on Thursday, September 5th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 1st. This is a positive change from Matson’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32.

Matson has raised its dividend 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 14.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Matson to earn $8.91 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 14.4%.

Matson Stock Performance

Matson stock opened at $130.97 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $118.48 and a 200-day moving average of $113.77. The stock has a market cap of $4.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.44 and a beta of 1.11. Matson has a 52 week low of $74.04 and a 52 week high of $133.53.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last issued its 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 net margin of 9.61% and a return on equity of 12.66%. The business had revenue of $722.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.44 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.94 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Matson will post 10.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on MATX shares. StockNews.com upgraded Matson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 24th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Matson from $109.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Matson in a report on Friday, May 24th.

Insider Transactions at Matson

In other Matson news, CFO Joel M. Wine sold 8,941 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.80, for a total value of $1,151,600.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 151,329 shares in the company, valued at $19,491,175.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Matson news, CFO Joel M. Wine sold 8,941 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.80, for a total transaction of $1,151,600.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 151,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,491,175.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Matthew J. Cox sold 7,843 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.54, for a total value of $1,023,825.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 230,397 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,076,024.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,269 shares of company stock valued at $2,795,413. Corporate 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.