Matson (NYSE:MATX) and Performance Shipping (NASDAQ:PSHG) Head to Head Analysis

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

Volatility and Risk

Performance Shipping has a beta of -0.14, indicating that its stock price is 114% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Matson has a beta of 1.27, indicating that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

19.9% of Performance Shipping shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.8% of Matson shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Performance Shipping shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 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 stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Performance Shipping and Matson, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

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

Matson has a consensus price target of $232.33, indicating a potential upside of 4.12%. Given Matson’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Matson is more favorable than Performance Shipping.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Performance Shipping	$84.17 million	0.26	$49.97 million	$0.92	1.93
Matson	$3.34 billion	1.99	$444.80 million	$14.96	14.92

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Performance Shipping	29.70%	10.21%	5.48%
Matson	13.41%	16.94%	10.01%

Summary

Matson beats Performance Shipping on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Performance Shipping

Performance Shipping Inc. provides shipping transportation services through its tanker vessels worldwide. As of December 31, 2023, its fleet consisted of seven Aframax tanker vessels with a combined carrying capacity of 735,910 DWT. The company was incorporated in 2010 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.