One-glance verdict
Overvalued
$144.08 our estimate vs market $237.73
Wall Street consensus: $261.67 (81.6% higher than our fair-value estimate)
65% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Fundamentals snapshot
Matson, Inc.
MATX · NYQ · Industrials · Marine Shipping
Current price
$237.73
52-week range
$86.97 - $240.11
Market cap
$7.11B
Balance sheet
Healthy
68.72x Strong cushion
Net debt $597.10M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
3 Risks
3 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 3.4% last year.
- Reward Returns 17.2% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
- Risk Stock trades 88.2% above its 5-year average P/E.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 29.3% to 16.1% over 3 years.
What this company does
Matson, Inc.
Matson is a shipping company that uses its own fleet of container ships to move goods across the Pacific Ocean. It earns most of its money transporting essential products like groceries, cars, and building materials to communities in Hawaii, Alaska, and Guam. This makes Matson a crucial part of the supply chain (the entire journey a product takes from the factory to the consumer) for these economies, which rely heavily on its services.
How the company got here
Founded in 1882 by Captain William Matson, the company started by transporting goods like plantation supplies and sugar between the U.S. West Coast and Hawaii. Over the years, it expanded its routes across the Pacific and even ventured into passenger liners and hotels to support the growing tourism in Hawaii. A key moment was in 1958 when Matson pioneered the use of shipping containers in the Pacific, a move that significantly improved the efficiency of loading and unloading cargo. The company you see today is a result of separating from its former parent company in 2012 and focusing purely on ocean transportation and logistics.
What it actually does
Think of Matson as a crucial delivery service for big items and large quantities of goods, but instead of a van, they use massive ships to cross the ocean. They transport a wide variety of things that people and businesses need, such as groceries, building materials, cars, and clothing, primarily to places that are not connected to the U.S. mainland by road, like Hawaii, Alaska, and Guam. Beyond just the sea voyage, they also help manage the entire journey of the goods, including truck and rail transport once the items are on land.
Ocean Transportation
This is Matson's main business, making up the majority of its revenue. It involves operating a fleet of ships that carry containers filled with goods on scheduled routes across the Pacific. Their key markets are the non-contiguous U.S. economies of Hawaii, Alaska, and Guam, where they provide a vital supply link. They also offer a premium, faster-than-standard service from China to Southern California, which is popular for time-sensitive products.
Logistics
This part of the company, established in 1987, acts as a travel agent for freight, arranging transportation for goods across North America using services like rail and trucking. It's considered "asset-light" because they don't own all the trucks and trains, but rather coordinate with other companies. This segment also provides warehousing (storing goods for customers), distribution, and helps manage a customer's entire supply chain (the process of getting a product from the manufacturer to the end customer). This business complements their ocean shipping by offering customers a more complete, door-to-door service.
What management is betting on now
Matson is currently focused on modernizing its fleet by investing in new, more fuel-efficient ships for its Hawaii service to maintain its reliable schedule and meet environmental goals. Another key priority is expanding its services in Southeast Asia, aiming to capture more of the market for goods that need fast and reliable shipping to the U.S. The company is also committed to returning value to its investors through actions like share buybacks (when a company buys its own stock, which can increase the value of the remaining shares) and paying dividends (a portion of the company's profits paid out to shareholders).
Price history
How the share price has moved
—
Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$189.00M
FY2024 Q4
$49.30M
FY2025 Q1
$-200.00K
FY2025 Q2
$19.30M
FY2025 Q3
$92.40M
FY2025 Q4
$42.20M
FY2026 Q1
$45.70M
Revenue
$969.40M
Net income
$129.40M
Diluted EPS
4.27
Operating cash flow
$137.60M
Free cash flow
—
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$757.80M
Net income
$56.60M
Diluted EPS
1.85
Operating cash flow
$94.00M
Free cash flow
$45.70M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$851.90M
Net income
$143.10M
Diluted EPS
4.47
Operating cash flow
$176.90M
Free cash flow
$42.20M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$880.10M
Net income
$134.70M
Diluted EPS
4.24
Operating cash flow
$175.60M
Free cash flow
$92.40M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$830.50M
Net income
$94.70M
Diluted EPS
2.92
Operating cash flow
$105.60M
Free cash flow
$19.30M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$782.00M
Net income
$72.30M
Diluted EPS
2.18
Operating cash flow
$89.00M
Free cash flow
$-200.00K
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$890.30M
Net income
$128.00M
Diluted EPS
3.69
Operating cash flow
$174.70M
Free cash flow
$49.30M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$962.00M
Net income
$199.10M
Diluted EPS
5.89
Operating cash flow
$248.60M
Free cash flow
$189.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $144.08 vs current price $237.73
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $261.67 (81.6% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $144.08 a share — about 39.4% below today's price of $237.73, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net debt $597.1M. Interest coverage 68.7x.
Net debt
$597.10M
Interest coverage
68.72x
Matson, Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 68.7 times over. which is stronger than every peer shown here.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
MATX
BASELINE
Matson, Inc.
Total debt $716.40M Interest coverage 68.72x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $5.31B Interest coverage 2.08x -97% vs MATX Carries about 33.0x less debt cushion than MATX.
Total debt $1.23B Interest coverage 10.61x -85% vs MATX Carries about 6.5x less debt cushion than MATX.
Total debt $1.21B Interest coverage 11.64x -83% vs MATX Carries about 5.9x less debt cushion than MATX.
Total debt $1.50B Interest coverage 5.06x -93% vs MATX Carries about 13.6x less debt cushion than MATX.
Total debt $671.76M Interest coverage 9.63x -86% vs MATX Carries about 7.1x less debt cushion than MATX.
What you should know
The case for and against MATX
3 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 3.4% last year.
-
Returns 17.2% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 8/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 88.2% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Operating margin compressed from 29.3% to 16.1% over 3 years.
-
Insider ownership is only 1.9% (peer median: 11.0%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
16.05x
Forward P/E
14.24x
P/B
2.56x
P/S
2.06x
EV/EBITDA
11.37x
PEG ratio
2.01x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
23.0%
Operating margin
16.1%
Net margin
13.4%
ROE
17.2%
ROA
6.9%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.26x
Current ratio
0.89x
Quick ratio
0.75x
Total debt
$716.40M
Total cash
$119.30M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$3.46B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-3.9%
EPS TTM
14.81
EPS 5Y CAGR
-20.1%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$584.10M
Free CF TTM
$153.70M
FCF margin
4.4%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
0.6%
Payout ratio
9.7%
Last ex-div date
2026-08-06