Matson, Inc. (MATX) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 8th

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Investors 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 of this dividend is Wednesday, May 8th.

Matson has increased its dividend payment by an average of 11.9% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 12 years. Matson has a dividend payout ratio of 14.9% indicating that 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 Price Performance

NYSE:MATX traded down $0.78 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $108.94. 171,616 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 198,083. The company 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 1 year low of $62.71 and a 1 year high of $122.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $109.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $105.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Christopher A. Scott sold 1,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.83, for a total transaction of $126,268.93. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,958 shares in the company, valued at $1,397,261.14. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.32% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MATX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Matson from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Matson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 20th.

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.