Wedbush Securities Inc. Acquires Shares of 3,168 Matson, Inc. $MATX

Wedbush Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,168 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $609,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of MATX. Danske Bank A S bought a new position in shares of Matson in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Allworth Financial LP acquired a new stake in Matson in the second quarter valued at about $28,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Matson in the second quarter valued at about $28,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC bought a new position in Matson in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, SouthState Bank Corp bought a new position in Matson in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Zacks Research raised shares of Matson from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Matson from $230.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Stephens raised their target price on shares of Matson from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Matson from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Matson from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and four have issued a Buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $232.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Matson

In other news, EVP Peter T. Heilmann sold 5,000 shares of Matson stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $220.15, for a total value of $1,100,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 20,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,514,395.90. This trade represents a 19.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Leonard P. Isotoff sold 1,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.30, for a total value of $260,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 6,527 shares in the company, valued at $1,359,574.10. This represents a 16.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 15,262 shares of company stock valued at $3,223,716 over the last three months. 2.51% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Matson Price Performance

Shares of MATX opened at $219.09 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $210.38 and a 200-day moving average of $186.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The company has a market capitalization of $6.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.65 and a beta of 1.27. Matson, Inc. has a 1 year low of $86.97 and a 1 year high of $230.74.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The shipping company reported $4.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.48. The business had revenue of $969.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $893.91 million. Matson had a net margin of 13.41% and a return on equity of 16.94%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.92 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Matson, Inc. will post 16.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Matson Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, August 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a boost from Matson’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 6th. Matson’s payout ratio is 10.16%.

Matson Company Profile

Matson, Inc (NYSE: MATX) is a U.S.-based provider of ocean transportation and supply chain logistics services with a focus on Pacific trade lanes. The company operates a fleet of container ships that regularly service Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, Micronesia and other Pacific islands, as well as mainland U.S. ports. Matson’s ocean transportation segment offers scheduled liner services, expedited shipping options and specialized project cargo handling for industries ranging from retail to heavy machinery.

In addition to its core liner operations, Matson offers ocean transportation services between Asia and the U.S.