Highland Capital Management LLC Purchases 151 Shares of Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX)

Highland Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) by 6.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,390 shares of the shipping company’s stock after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the period. Highland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Matson were worth $322,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MATX. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 958,577 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new position in shares of Matson during the 4th quarter worth approximately $9,788,000. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec purchased a new stake in Matson during the third quarter valued at approximately $6,735,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Matson by 14,162.0% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 42,786 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $6,102,000 after acquiring an additional 42,486 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Matson in the third quarter worth $5,746,000. 84.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on MATX shares. Wolfe Research cut Matson from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Matson in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd.

Matson Stock Performance

NYSE MATX opened at $141.98 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Matson, Inc. has a twelve month low of $100.50 and a twelve month high of $169.12. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $142.47 and a 200 day moving average of $139.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.81 and a beta of 1.07.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The shipping company reported $5.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.98 by $0.91. Matson had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.37%. The company had revenue of $962.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $965.73 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.40 EPS. Matson’s quarterly revenue was up 16.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Matson, Inc. will post 13.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Matson Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 6th will be issued a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 6th. Matson’s payout ratio is currently 11.31%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Matson news, SVP Leonard P. Isotoff sold 492 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.26, for a total value of $79,339.92. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,254 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $686,000.04. This represents a 10.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Rusty K. Rolfe sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.97, for a total transaction of $497,910.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 21,871 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,629,929.87. This represents a 12.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,646 shares of company stock valued at $1,578,768 in the last three months. 2.32% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.