Matson (NYSE:MATX) versus Danaos (NYSE:DAC) Head to Head Analysis

Matson (NYSE:MATX) and Danaos (NYSE:DAC) are both mid-cap industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Matson and Danaos”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Matson	$3.34 billion	1.86	$444.80 million	$14.96	13.88
Danaos	$1.04 billion	2.45	$494.61 million	$29.55	4.76

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

84.8% of Matson shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 19.0% of Danaos shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.5% of Matson shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 41.0% of Danaos shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Matson has a beta of 1.27, meaning that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Danaos has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Matson pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Danaos pays an annual dividend of $3.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Matson pays out 9.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Danaos pays out 12.2% 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 increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years and Danaos has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Matson and Danaos’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Matson	13.41%	16.94%	10.01%
Danaos	51.26%	13.20%	10.08%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Matson and Danaos, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Matson	0	2	3	0	2.60
Danaos	0	0	0	3	4.00

Matson presently has a consensus target price of $232.33, indicating a potential upside of 11.92%. Given Matson’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Matson is more favorable than Danaos.

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.

About Danaos

Danaos Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides container and drybulk vessels services in Australia, Asia, and Europe. The company offers seaborne transportation services by operating vessels in the containership and drybulk sectors of the shipping industry. As of April 03, 2024, it had a fleet of 68 containerships aggregating 421,293 twenty-foot equivalent units in capacity. The company was formerly known as Danaos Holdings Limited and changed its name to Danaos Corporation in October 2005. Danaos Corporation was founded in 1963 and is based in Piraeus, Greece.