Matson, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.32 (NYSE:MATX)

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 9th will be given a dividend of 0.32 per share by the shipping company on Thursday, June 6th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 8th.

Matson has raised its dividend by an average of 11.9% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 12 years. Matson has a payout ratio of 14.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Matson to earn $7.81 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 16.4%.

Matson Stock Performance

MATX stock traded down $0.78 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $108.94. The company had a trading volume of 171,616 shares, compared to its average volume of 198,083. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.01 and a beta of 1.12. Matson has a one year low of $62.71 and a one year high of $122.99. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $109.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $105.29.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The shipping company reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $788.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $733.60 million. Matson had a net margin of 9.60% and a return on equity of 12.71%. Matson’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.10 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Matson will post 8.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Matson news, SVP Christopher A. Scott sold 1,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.83, for a total transaction of $126,268.93. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,397,261.14. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.32% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on MATX. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Matson from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. StockNews.com raised Matson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 20th.

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.