Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) Short Interest Up 51.8% in December

Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,240,000 shares, an increase of 51.8% from the November 30th total of 816,600 shares. Approximately 3.8% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 253,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.9 days.

Insider Transactions at Matson

In other Matson news, SVP John Warren Sullivan sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,745 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,109,297.50. The trade was a 5.56 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Rusty K. Rolfe sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.97, for a total transaction of $497,910.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 21,871 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,629,929.87. The trade was a 12.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 9,646 shares of company stock valued at $1,578,768. Insiders own 2.32% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Matson

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MATX. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in Matson by 4,167,726.1% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 958,600 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $136,716,000 after acquiring an additional 958,577 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Matson by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 911,827 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $119,422,000 after acquiring an additional 36,901 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Matson by 5.5% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 395,716 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $56,437,000 after purchasing an additional 20,568 shares during the period. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Matson by 52.1% during the second quarter. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC now owns 356,416 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $46,680,000 after purchasing an additional 122,017 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Matson by 10.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 286,968 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $40,927,000 after purchasing an additional 26,366 shares during the period. 84.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com cut Matson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Matson from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th.

Matson Price Performance

MATX stock traded down $0.97 during trading on Monday, reaching $135.57. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 124,207 shares, compared to its average volume of 272,145. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company’s fifty day moving average is $148.62 and its 200-day moving average is $137.65. The company has a market capitalization of $4.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.28 and a beta of 1.04. Matson has a 1 year low of $100.50 and a 1 year high of $169.12.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The shipping company reported $5.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.98 by $0.91. The firm had revenue of $962.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $965.73 million. Matson had a net margin of 12.37% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.40 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Matson will post 13.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Matson Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th were issued a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 7th. Matson’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.31%.

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.