Comparing Cool (NYSE:CLCO) & Matson (NYSE:MATX)

Cool (NYSE:CLCO) and Matson (NYSE:MATX) are both transportation companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Cool and Matson, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cool	0	0	1	0	3.00
Matson	0	2	1	0	2.33

Matson has a consensus price target of $109.33, suggesting a potential upside of 13.87%. Given Matson’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Matson is more favorable than Cool.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

20.7% of Cool shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.0% of Matson shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.9% of Matson shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Cool and Matson’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cool	$161.96 million	3.32	$85.74 million	$2.37	5.66
Matson	$3.11 billion	1.09	$1.06 billion	$8.70	11.04

Matson has higher revenue and earnings than Cool. Cool is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Matson, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Cool pays an annual dividend of $1.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.2%. Matson pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Cool pays out 69.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Matson pays out 14.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Matson has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Cool and Matson’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cool	N/A	N/A	N/A
Matson	10.06%	13.53%	7.33%

Summary

Matson beats Cool on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cool

Cool Company Ltd. engages in the ownership, operation, and management of liquefied natural gas carriers (LNGCs) that provides supply chain support solutions for energy industry. The company owns and operates a fleet of LNGCs, including tri-fuel diesel electric vessels; and floating storage and regasification units for third parties. Cool Company Ltd. was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.

About Matson

Matson, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides ocean transportation and logistics services. The company's Ocean Transportation segment offers ocean freight transportation services to the domestic non-contiguous economies of Hawaii, Alaska, and Guam, as well as to other island economies in Micronesia. It primarily transports dry containers of mixed commodities, refrigerated commodities, foods and beverages, building materials, automobiles, and household goods; livestock; seafood; general sustenance cargo; and garments, footwear, e-commerce, and other retail merchandise. This segment also operates an expedited service from China to Long Beach, California, and various islands in the South Pacific, as well as Okinawa, Japan; and provides stevedoring, refrigerated cargo services, inland transportation, container equipment maintenance, and other terminal services to ocean carriers on the Hawaiian islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai, as well as in the Alaska locations of Anchorage, Kodiak, and Dutch Harbor. In addition, the company offers vessel management and container transshipment services. Its Logistics segment provides multimodal transportation brokerage services, including domestic and international rail intermodal, long-haul and regional highway trucking, specialized hauling, flat-bed and project, less-than-truckload, and expedited freight services; less-than-container load consolidation and freight forwarding services; warehousing and distribution services; supply chain management services, and non-vessel operating common carrier freight forwarding services. The company serves the U.S. military, freight forwarders, retailers, consumer goods, automobile manufacturers, and other customers. The company was formerly known as Alexander & Baldwin Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Matson, Inc. in June 2012. Matson, Inc. was founded in 1882 and is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.