Matson (NYSE:MATX) Raised to Buy at StockNews.com

Matson (NYSE:MATX) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Matson from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st.

Matson Trading Up 1.5 %

MATX opened at $106.19 on Friday. Matson has a fifty-two week low of $61.51 and a fifty-two week high of $122.99. The company has a market cap of $3.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.67 and a beta of 1.12. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $110.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $104.62.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 during 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.10 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Matson will post 8.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Matson

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Matson in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. USA Financial Formulas acquired a new position in shares of Matson during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Security National Bank bought a new stake in shares of Matson in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in Matson by 109.6% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 415 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Matson during the fourth quarter worth about $53,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.76% of the company’s stock.

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.