Reviewing Matson (NYSE:MATX) and BingEx (NASDAQ:FLX)

Matson (NYSE:MATX) and BingEx (NASDAQ:FLX) are both transportation companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Matson and BingEx, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Matson	0	3	3	0	2.50
BingEx	1	0	1	0	2.00

Matson presently has a consensus target price of $181.25, indicating a potential downside of 0.09%. BingEx has a consensus target price of $4.70, indicating a potential upside of 100.85%. Given BingEx’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe BingEx is more favorable than Matson.

Risk and Volatility

Matson has a beta of 1.29, indicating that its share price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BingEx has a beta of 0.53, indicating that its share price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Matson	$3.34 billion	1.64	$444.80 million	$13.61	13.33
BingEx	$570.86 million	0.24	$15.65 million	$0.18	13.00

Matson has higher revenue and earnings than BingEx. BingEx 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 Matson and BingEx’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Matson	12.92%	15.90%	9.38%
BingEx	1.89%	13.02%	8.54%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

84.8% of Matson shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.5% of Matson shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Matson beats BingEx on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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 BingEx

BingEx Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides on-demand courier services under the FlashEx brand name in the People’s Republic of China. The company offers Flash-Riders as service providers. It serves individual and business customers, including local retailers, restaurants, and logistics players through its mobile platform and website. The company was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China.