Head to Head Contrast: Matson (NYSE:MATX) vs. Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte (NASDAQ:OMAB)

Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte (NASDAQ:OMAB) and Matson (NYSE:MATX) are both mid-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte and Matson”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte	$832.66 million	6.26	$237.12 million	$5.65	21.69
Matson	$3.34 billion	1.55	$476.40 million	$13.94	11.91

Matson has higher revenue and earnings than Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte. Matson is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

9.5% of Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.8% of Matson shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of Matson shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte has a beta of 0.74, suggesting that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Matson has a beta of 1.35, suggesting that its stock price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte pays an annual dividend of $4.41 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Matson pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte pays out 78.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Matson pays out 10.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Matson has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte and Matson, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte	1	4	1	0	2.00
Matson	0	4	2	0	2.33

Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte presently has a consensus price target of $106.00, suggesting a potential downside of 13.49%. Matson has a consensus price target of $156.25, suggesting a potential downside of 5.89%. Given Matson’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Matson is more favorable than Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte.

Profitability

This table compares Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte and Matson’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte	33.46%	54.36%	18.90%
Matson	13.30%	16.63%	9.75%

Summary

Matson beats Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte

Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte, S.A.B. de C.V., together with its subsidiaries, holds concessions to develop, operate, and maintain airports in Mexico. The company operates 13 international airports in Monterrey, Acapulco, Mazatlán, Zihuatanejo, Ciudad Juárez, Reynosa, Chihuahua, Culiacán, Durango, San Luis Potosí, Tampico, Torreón, and Zacatecas cities. It also operates the NH Collection Hotel in Terminal 2 of the Mexico City International Airport, and a hotel under the Hilton Garden Inn name at the Monterrey International Airport. In addition, the company provides aeronautical services, which include passenger, aircraft landing and parking, boarding and unloading, passenger walkway, and airport security services. Further, it offers complementary services that comprise leasing of space to airlines, cargo handling, baggage-screening, permanent and non-permanent ground transportation, and access rights services; non-aeronautical services, such as leasing of space at its airports to retailers, restaurants, and other commercial tenants, as well as maintaining of parking facilities and advertising; and diversification services, which consists of operation and lease of the industrial park and real estate services, as well as hotel and air cargo logistics services. Additionally, the company provides construction services. It has a strategic alliance with VYNMSA Desarrollo Inmobiliario, S.A. de C.V. to build and operate an industrial park at the Monterrey airport. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico.

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. It primarily transports dry containers of mixed commodities, refrigerated commodities, food products, beverages, building materials, automobiles, and household goods; livestock; seafood; general sustenance cargo; and garments, footwear, e-commerce, and other retail merchandise. This segment also operates an expedited service from China to Long Beach, California, and various islands in the South Pacific, as well as Okinawa, Japan; and provides stevedoring, refrigerated cargo services, inland transportation, container equipment maintenance, and other terminal services to ocean carriers on the Hawaiian islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai, as well as in the Alaska locations of Anchorage, Kodiak, and Dutch Harbor. In addition, it offers vessel management and container transshipment services. The Logistics segment provides multimodal transportation brokerage services, including domestic and international rail intermodal, long-haul and regional highway trucking, specialized hauling, flat-bed and project, less-than-truckload, and expedited freight services; less-than-container load consolidation and freight forwarding services; warehousing and distribution services; supply chain management services, and non-vessel operating common carrier freight forwarding services. It serves the U.S. military, freight forwarders, retailers, consumer goods, automobile manufacturers, and other customers. The company was formerly known as Alexander & Baldwin Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Matson, Inc. in June 2012. Matson, Inc. was founded in 1882 and is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.