Evolve Private Wealth LLC Purchases New Holdings in Matson, Inc. $MATX

Evolve Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 6,779 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,303,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Matson in the second quarter worth $952,903,000. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in shares of Matson by 144.9% in the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 455,133 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $44,872,000 after purchasing an additional 269,310 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Matson in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,415,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Matson in the second quarter worth about $50,637,000. Finally, Encompass Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Matson in the first quarter worth about $32,761,000. 84.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Leonard P. Isotoff sold 1,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.30, for a total transaction of $260,375.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 6,527 shares in the company, valued at $1,359,574.10. This trade represents a 16.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Kuuhaku T. Park sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.49, for a total value of $208,490.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 9,984 shares in the company, valued at $2,081,564.16. This represents a 9.10% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 14,169 shares of company stock worth $2,933,211. Company insiders own 2.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Matson Stock Performance

Shares of MATX opened at $223.14 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $206.47 and a 200-day moving average of $183.76. The company has a market cap of $6.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.92 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.89. Matson, Inc. has a 1 year low of $86.97 and a 1 year high of $230.74.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The shipping company reported $4.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.48. The firm had revenue of $969.40 million for 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%. Matson’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.92 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Matson, Inc. will post 16.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Matson Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 6th will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a positive change from Matson’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 6th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Matson’s payout ratio is presently 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.