TacticScaleWhat Matson Does & How It Makes Money (MATX)
Updated October 2026 · reflects Matson's latest reported financials
Ocean shipping and logistics company serving Hawaii, Alaska, Guam and Pacific. Matson earns freight revenue by shipping containers and vehicles on its ocean routes, plus fees for terminal services such as stevedoring.
How Matson makes money
Matson earns freight revenue by shipping containers and vehicles on its ocean routes, plus fees for terminal services such as stevedoring. Its Logistics segment earns brokerage, forwarding and warehousing fees for arranging freight over land and sea.
What Matson does
Matson, Inc. is a Honolulu-based ocean transportation and logistics company whose roots go back to 1882. Its Ocean Transportation segment is a key shipping link to the domestic non-contiguous economies of Hawaii, Alaska and Guam, as well as other Micronesian islands. It carries everything from groceries, beverages and building materials to automobiles, livestock and e-commerce goods. It also runs an expedited service from China to Long Beach, California, serves the South Pacific and Okinawa, and provides stevedoring and terminal services at ports in Hawaii and Alaska. The Logistics segment complements the fleet with multimodal transportation brokerage, including rail intermodal, long-haul and regional trucking, and specialized and expedited freight. It also offers freight forwarding and NVOCC services, warehousing, distribution and purchase order management. Customers include the U.S. military, freight forwarders, retailers and consumer goods manufacturers. The company was formerly Alexander & Baldwin Holdings and took the Matson name in 2012.
Products & services
- Hawaii, Alaska and Guam ocean freight services
- China–Long Beach expedited ocean service
- South Pacific and Okinawa shipping services
- Stevedoring and terminal services in Hawaii and Alaska
- Rail intermodal and highway trucking brokerage
- Freight forwarding, NVOCC and warehousing services
What is Matson worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, Matson's most-likely value is about $113 versus a recent price near $226 (50% above fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$74) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Fairly priced — no edge.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
Price sits in the normal range — fair value isn't actionable here; it earns its keep only when price drops below the no-growth floor, or runs to roughly double the optimistic case.
⚠ Capital-intensive — this business reinvests heavily, so free cash flow runs well below its earnings. Fair value here is built on free cash flow, which understates owner earnings for reinvestment-heavy companies — read it as conservative.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →