What happened to Matson? It took a huge hit early in April but seems to be recovering. And on Wednesday Matson stock's Relative Strength (RS) Rating rose to 93, up from 90 a day earlier. It shows Matson is among top growth stocks.
Matson Stock Takes A Roller-Coaster Ride
The new 93 RS Rating means that Matson stock has outperformed 93% of all stocks in terms of price performance over the past year. The best-performing stocks typically have an RS Rating north of 80 in the early stages of their moves.
Shares of the shipping company soared last year and early this year as supply chains unclogged and shipments rose while the pandemic eased. Then in early April Matson stock tanked more than 30% over a few days despite strong fundamentals. It fell from an intraday high 125.34 on March 30 to an 85.16 low on April 11. The plunge came even though there was no major negative news on the company, and last quarter it reported a 379% profit surge to $9.39 per share on an 81% increase in revenue to $1.27 billion. Perhaps it was a spate of profit-taking after the long run-up.
In any case, even after the recent drop Matson is still up more than 40% from a 60.75 low in late June last year when it began its big run. And it seems to be on the upswing again. It's risen more than 9% from the April 11 low and was trading around 93 Wednesday afternoon.
On Tuesday Matson announced preliminary first quarter results. The company expects EPS of $8 to $8.20 per share and a year-over-year increase in consolidated income, driven by China service strength. The company plans to announce full Q1 results on May 3.
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Among its other key ratings, Matson stock has a near-perfect 97 Composite Rating, of a best-possible 99. And it boasts a perfect 99 EPS Rating. In the three periods prior to last quarter, it reported EPS growth of more than 999%, then 388% and 301%.
Now is not an ideal time to jump into watchlist candidate Matson stock since it isn't near a proper buy zone, but see if the stock goes on to establish and enter a buy zone in heavy trade.
Peers In Shipping Industry
Matson stock holds the No. 14 rank among its peers in the Transportation-Ship industry group. Costamare, Capital Products and Eurodry are among the top 5 highly rated stocks within the group.
When looking for the best stocks to buy and watch, one factor to watch closely is relative price strength. This unique rating identifies market leadership by showing how a stock's price action over the last 52 weeks compares to that of the other stocks in our database.
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