Matson (NYSE:MATX) & Diana Shipping (NYSE:DSX) Head-To-Head Analysis

Diana Shipping (NYSE:DSX) and Matson (NYSE:MATX) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

48.7% of Diana Shipping shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.8% of Matson shares are held by institutional investors. 2.5% of Matson shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Diana Shipping pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Matson pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Diana Shipping pays out 8.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Matson pays out 10.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Matson has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Diana Shipping is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Diana Shipping and Matson’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Diana Shipping	27.88%	7.55%	3.32%
Matson	13.41%	16.94%	10.01%

Volatility and Risk

Diana Shipping has a beta of 0.51, suggesting that its stock price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Matson has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Diana Shipping and Matson, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Diana Shipping	0	1	0	0	2.00
Matson	0	0	4	1	3.20

Matson has a consensus target price of $232.33, indicating a potential upside of 8.49%. Given Matson’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Matson is more favorable than Diana Shipping.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Diana Shipping and Matson”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Diana Shipping	$215.94 million	1.37	$17.83 million	$0.48	4.94
Matson	$3.34 billion	1.91	$444.80 million	$14.96	14.31

Matson has higher revenue and earnings than Diana Shipping. Diana Shipping is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Matson, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Matson beats Diana Shipping on 15 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Diana Shipping

Diana Shipping Inc. provides shipping transportation services. The company transports a range of dry bulk cargoes, including commodities, such as iron ore, coal, grain, and other materials in shipping routes worldwide. As of March 1, 2024, it operated a fleet of 38 dry bulk vessels, including 4 Newcastlemax, 8 Capesize, 5 Post-Panamax, 6 Kamsarmax, 9 Ultramax, and 6 Panamax. The company was formerly known as Diana Shipping Investments Corp. and changed its name to Diana Shipping Inc. in February 2005. Diana Shipping Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is based in Athens, Greece.

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. It primarily transports dry containers of mixed commodities, refrigerated commodities, food products, beverages, building materials, automobiles, and household goods; livestock; seafood; general sustenance cargo; and garments, footwear, e-commerce, and other retail merchandise. This segment also operates an expedited service from China to Long Beach, California, and various islands in the South Pacific, as well as Okinawa, Japan; and provides stevedoring, refrigerated cargo services, inland transportation, container equipment maintenance, and other terminal services to ocean carriers on the Hawaiian islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai, as well as in the Alaska locations of Anchorage, Kodiak, and Dutch Harbor. In addition, it offers vessel management and container transshipment services. The Logistics segment provides multimodal transportation brokerage services, including domestic and international rail intermodal, long-haul and regional highway trucking, specialized hauling, flat-bed and project, less-than-truckload, and expedited freight services; less-than-container load consolidation and freight forwarding services; warehousing and distribution services; supply chain management services, and non-vessel operating common carrier freight forwarding services. It serves the U.S. military, freight forwarders, retailers, consumer goods, automobile manufacturers, and other customers. The company was formerly known as Alexander & Baldwin Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Matson, Inc. in June 2012. Matson, Inc. was founded in 1882 and is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.