Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lessened its position in Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,797 shares of the shipping company’s stock after selling 362 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Matson were worth $1,540,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. PAX Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Matson in the first quarter worth $605,000. Caxton Associates LP grew its stake in Matson by 283.4% in the 1st quarter. Caxton Associates LP now owns 8,232 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $925,000 after acquiring an additional 6,085 shares during the last quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP boosted its stake in shares of Matson by 31.5% during the second quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 75,070 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $9,832,000 after acquiring an additional 17,992 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Matson by 3,509.3% during the first quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 188,910 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $21,233,000 after buying an additional 183,676 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Matson in the first quarter valued at approximately $542,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MATX. Stephens raised their price target on Matson from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Matson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th.

Matson Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of MATX opened at $164.55 on Friday. Matson, Inc. has a twelve month low of $91.98 and a twelve month high of $169.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.69 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $140.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $130.51.

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

Matson Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 7th will be given a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.83%. Matson’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.31%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Matson news, SVP Richard S. Kinney sold 1,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.62, for a total transaction of $215,796.30. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 7,973 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,352.26. The trade was a 16.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Matthew J. Cox sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.17, for a total value of $1,028,775.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 215,397 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,546,006.49. This trade represents a 3.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 29,614 shares of company stock worth $4,338,094 over the last ninety days. 2.32% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.