Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.34

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.34 per share by the shipping company on Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 6th.

Matson has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.6% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 12 years. Matson has a dividend payout ratio of 14.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Matson to earn $9.80 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 13.9%.

Matson Price Performance

MATX opened at $136.44 on Friday. Matson has a twelve month low of $100.50 and a twelve month high of $169.12. The firm has a market cap of $4.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.35 and a beta of 1.07. 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 company has a fifty day simple moving average of $143.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $139.06.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The shipping company reported $5.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $962.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $965.73 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.40 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Matson will post 13.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Matson

In other Matson news, SVP Leonard P. Isotoff sold 492 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.26, for a total transaction of $79,339.92. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,254 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $686,000.04. This represents a 10.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP John Warren Sullivan sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.50, for a total value of $124,125.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,745 shares in the company, valued at $2,109,297.50. The trade was a 5.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 9,646 shares of company stock worth $1,578,768. 2.32% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MATX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wolfe Research lowered Matson from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Matson in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd.

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.