Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Cuts Stake in Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lowered its position in shares of Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 16,100 shares of the shipping company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Matson were worth $2,171,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its position in Matson by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 16,217 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $2,313,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Matson by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,645 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $2,244,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Matson by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 2,972 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $401,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Matson by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 2,283 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $326,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Matson by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 1,663 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $237,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Matson from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Matson in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd.

Matson Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MATX opened at $146.58 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.19 and a beta of 1.05. Matson, Inc. has a 52 week low of $100.50 and a 52 week high of $169.12. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $139.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $140.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Matson Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.93%. Matson’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.31%.

Matson 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.