Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Boosts Holdings in Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its position in Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) by 18.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 36,169 shares of the shipping company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,594 shares during the quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp’s holdings in Matson were worth $4,737,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Matson by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,984,076 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $447,810,000 after purchasing an additional 215,452 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Matson by 3,509.3% in the first quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 188,910 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $21,233,000 after buying an additional 183,676 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Matson during the fourth quarter worth $10,295,000. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Matson by 25.5% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 293,163 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $32,131,000 after buying an additional 59,652 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management grew its holdings in shares of Matson by 18.1% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 282,763 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $31,783,000 after buying an additional 43,324 shares during the last quarter. 84.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on MATX shares. StockNews.com lowered Matson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Stephens raised their price objective on Matson from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd.

Matson Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of Matson stock opened at $132.63 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.45 billion, a PE ratio of 15.64 and a beta of 1.07. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $130.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $120.35. Matson, Inc. has a 1 year low of $82.68 and a 1 year high of $138.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.93.

Matson (NYSE:MATX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The shipping company reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $847.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $861.68 million. Matson had a return on equity of 13.87% and a net margin of 10.41%. Equities research analysts predict that Matson, Inc. will post 11.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Matson Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 1st. This is an increase from Matson’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.03%. Matson’s payout ratio is presently 16.04%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Joel M. Wine sold 12,821 shares of Matson stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.24, for a total transaction of $1,580,060.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 126,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,579,754.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Joel M. Wine sold 12,821 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.24, for a total transaction of $1,580,060.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 126,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,579,754.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Joel M. Wine sold 11,444 shares of Matson stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.65, for a total value of $1,472,270.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 114,974 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,791,405.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 104,376 shares of company stock worth $13,565,120. Corporate insiders own 2.32% of the company’s stock.

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.