Royce & Associates LP Makes New Investment in Matson, Inc. $MATX

Royce & Associates LP bought a new stake in Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 96,391 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,503,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in Matson by 124.3% during the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 249 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Matson during the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Matson by 67.1% during the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 254 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming boosted its stake in Matson by 482.8% in the third quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 542 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 449 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC bought a new position in Matson in the first quarter valued at about $78,000. Institutional investors own 84.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MATX shares. Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $167.00 target price on shares of Matson in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Stephens increased their price objective on shares of Matson from $190.00 to $213.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Matson in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $156.25.

Matson Stock Performance

Matson stock opened at $168.37 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $150.39 and a 200-day moving average of $121.20. Matson, Inc. has a 1 year low of $86.97 and a 1 year high of $177.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company has a market capitalization of $5.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.08 and a beta of 1.32.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The shipping company reported $4.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.69 by $0.91. Matson had a net margin of 13.30% and a return on equity of 16.63%. The business had revenue of $851.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $847.30 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.80 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Matson, Inc. will post 13.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Matson Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 5th will be paid a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 5th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Matson’s payout ratio is currently 10.33%.

Matson Profile

Matson, Inc (NYSE: MATX) is a U.S.-based provider of ocean transportation and supply chain logistics services with a focus on Pacific trade lanes. The company operates a fleet of container ships that regularly service Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, Micronesia and other Pacific islands, as well as mainland U.S. ports. Matson’s ocean transportation segment offers scheduled liner services, expedited shipping options and specialized project cargo handling for industries ranging from retail to heavy machinery.

In addition to its core liner operations, Matson offers ocean transportation services between Asia and the U.S.