Matson (NYSE:MATX) Price Target Raised to $175.00

Matson (NYSE:MATX) had its target price raised by Stephens from $165.00 to $175.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Stephens currently has an overweight rating on the shipping company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on MATX. Wolfe Research lowered Matson from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Matson from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday.

Matson Trading Up 2.3 %

NYSE:MATX opened at $144.07 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.99 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a fifty day moving average of $139.60 and a 200 day moving average of $141.11. Matson has a 52 week low of $100.50 and a 52 week high of $169.12.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The shipping company reported $3.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.20 by $0.60. The firm had revenue of $890.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $851.78 million. Matson had a net margin of 12.37% and a return on equity of 16.89%. On average, research analysts predict that Matson will post 13.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Matson Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 6th will be issued a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.94%. Matson’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.69%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MATX. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Matson by 4,167,726.1% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 958,600 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $136,716,000 after purchasing an additional 958,577 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Matson during the fourth quarter valued at $35,016,000. Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC bought a new stake in shares of Matson during the 4th quarter valued at $34,897,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Matson by 73.9% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 416,473 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $56,157,000 after buying an additional 177,000 shares during the period. Finally, Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Matson in the 4th quarter worth about $20,204,000. Institutional investors own 84.76% of the company’s stock.

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.