Matthews International Co. (NASDAQ:MATW) Short Interest Update

Matthews International Co. (NASDAQ:MATW) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of February. As of February 29th, there was short interest totalling 735,400 shares, a drop of 7.2% from the February 14th total of 792,500 shares. Approximately 2.5% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 169,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.3 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on MATW. StockNews.com lowered shares of Matthews International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. B. Riley dropped their price objective on shares of Matthews International from $61.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 5th.

Matthews International Price Performance

Shares of MATW stock opened at $28.30 on Tuesday. Matthews International has a 1 year low of $27.37 and a 1 year high of $48.86. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $30.70 and its 200-day moving average is $35.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $868.24 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.70 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.88, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69.

Matthews International (NASDAQ:MATW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37. The business had revenue of $449.99 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $437.77 million. Matthews International had a net margin of 1.77% and a return on equity of 16.44%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Matthews International will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Matthews International Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 19th. Investors of record on Monday, February 5th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.39%. This is an increase from Matthews International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 2nd. Matthews International’s payout ratio is 90.57%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Matthews International

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Matthews International by 0.3% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,406,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $174,948,000 after purchasing an additional 14,222 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Matthews International by 2.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,491,378 shares of the company’s stock valued at $112,981,000 after purchasing an additional 74,954 shares in the last quarter. Phoenix Holdings Ltd. increased its stake in Matthews International by 198.6% in the third quarter. Phoenix Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,638,573 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,792,000 after purchasing an additional 3,299,949 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Matthews International by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,428,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,347,000 after purchasing an additional 13,594 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in Matthews International by 1.0% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,153,227 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,151,000 after purchasing an additional 11,298 shares in the last quarter. 76.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Matthews International

Matthews International Corporation provides brand solutions, memorialization products, and industrial technologies worldwide. It operates through three segments: Memorialization, Industrial Technologies, and SGK Brand Solutions. The Memorialization segment provides bronze and granite memorials, upright granite memorials and monuments, concrete burial vaults, cremation memorialization products, granite benches, flower vases, crypt plates and letters, cremation urns, niche units, cemetery features, and statues, as well as bronze plaques, letters, emblems, vases, lights and photo ceramics, granite monuments, mausoleums, crypts, and flush memorials.