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

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,RTT News reports. Shareholders 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 0.98%.

Matson has increased its dividend payment by an average of 7.6% 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 14.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:MATX traded up $0.62 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $138.62. The company had a trading volume of 159,610 shares, compared to its average volume of 225,708. 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 has a 12 month low of $100.50 and a 12 month high of $169.12. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $144.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $138.98. The stock has a market cap of $4.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.53 and a beta of 1.07.

Matson (NYSE:MATX - Get Free Report) last announced 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 net margin of 12.37% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The business had revenue of $962.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $965.73 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.40 EPS. Matson's revenue for the quarter was up 16.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Matson will post 13.19 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Matson from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Stephens reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Matson in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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.

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