Institutional investor T Rowe Price reported its first stake above 5% in Hawaii-based Matson, according to a regulatory filing.
T Rowe Price, which has about $811bn in assets under management, said in a regulatory filing it owns 2.7 million shares in the company, which owns containerships that serve Jones Act and international trade lanes.
The Matt Cox-led company is already a favourite of institutional investors. It counts BlackRock and Vanguard Group among its two largest shareholders.
For its part, T Rowe Price has mostly limited its shipping investments to the cruise industry. The investment manager also lists stakes in Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean Cruises.
Last November, Matson reported third-quarter earnings that were short of consensus estimates, causing shares to drop 20%. Stifel analyst Ben Nolan downgraded the company's shares at the time due to "few signs of improvement in container traffic in Matson's key Jones Act markets of Alaska and Hawaii."
