First Hawaiian Bank Lowers Position in Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX)

First Hawaiian Bank lowered its stake in shares of Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) by 7.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 46,086 shares of the shipping company’s stock after selling 3,483 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank’s holdings in Matson were worth $6,214,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MATX. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $136,716,000 after acquiring an additional 958,577 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Matson by 126.5% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 240,117 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $31,448,000 after buying an additional 134,092 shares during the period. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in Matson by 52.1% during the 2nd quarter. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC now owns 356,416 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $46,680,000 after acquiring an additional 122,017 shares in the last quarter. Forest Avenue Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Matson by 50.2% during the second quarter. Forest Avenue Capital Management LP now owns 232,455 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $30,445,000 after purchasing an additional 77,731 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec purchased a new stake in Matson during the 3rd quarter worth $6,735,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research downgraded Matson from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Matson in a report on Thursday, January 2nd.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Leonard P. Isotoff sold 492 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.26, for a total transaction of $79,339.92. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,254 shares in the company, valued at $686,000.04. The trade was a 10.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP John Warren Sullivan sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.50, for a total transaction of $124,125.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,745 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,109,297.50. The trade was a 5.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 9,646 shares of company stock valued at $1,578,768. Insiders own 2.32% of the company’s stock.

Matson Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MATX traded up $0.83 on Wednesday, hitting $139.27. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 135,570 shares, compared to its average volume of 208,931. Matson, Inc. has a 12 month low of $100.50 and a 12 month high of $169.12. The company has a market capitalization of $4.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.59 and a beta of 1.07. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $149.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $138.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.13.

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

Matson Dividend Announcement

The company 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. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.98%. 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.