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

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 9th will be paid 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 yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 8th.

Matson has increased its dividend by an average of 11.9% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. Matson has a dividend payout ratio of 14.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Trading Down 0.7 %

Matson stock traded down $0.78 during trading hours 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 debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $109.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $105.29. The firm has a market cap of $3.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.00 and a beta of 1.12. Matson has a 12-month low of $62.71 and a 12-month high of $122.99.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Matson news, SVP Christopher A. Scott sold 1,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.83, for a total value of $126,268.93. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,397,261.14. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MATX. StockNews.com raised Matson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 20th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Matson from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st.

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.