Rothschild Investment Corp IL boosted its position in shares of Norfolk Southern Co. (NYSE:NSC – Get Rating) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 11,780 shares of the railroad operator’s stock after buying an additional 69 shares during the quarter. Rothschild Investment Corp IL’s holdings in Norfolk Southern were worth $3,507,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NSC. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Norfolk Southern by 0.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,845,669 shares of the railroad operator’s stock valued at $917,237,000 after purchasing an additional 10,064 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Norfolk Southern by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,359,950 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $803,869,000 after purchasing an additional 322,892 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in Norfolk Southern by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,042,990 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $488,785,000 after purchasing an additional 75,416 shares during the period. London Co. of Virginia boosted its stake in Norfolk Southern by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 1,815,223 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $434,292,000 after purchasing an additional 26,630 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of Norfolk Southern by 185.7% during the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,568,070 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $384,162,000 after buying an additional 1,019,183 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.91% of the company’s stock.
A number of research firms have recently commented on NSC. Stephens downgraded shares of Norfolk Southern from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $325.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 4th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Norfolk Southern from $262.00 to $273.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Norfolk Southern from $316.00 to $337.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 10th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Norfolk Southern from $320.00 to $343.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 15th. Finally, Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Norfolk Southern from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $305.55.
NSC traded down $0.70 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $278.25. The company had a trading volume of 26,751 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,435,198. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $271.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $272.89. The company has a market capitalization of $66.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.02, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.37. Norfolk Southern Co. has a 52 week low of $238.62 and a 52 week high of $299.20.
Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 26th. The railroad operator reported $3.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.04 by $0.08. Norfolk Southern had a net margin of 26.97% and a return on equity of 21.28%. The company had revenue of $2.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.64 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Norfolk Southern Co. will post 13.73 EPS for the current year.
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 4th were paid a $1.24 dividend. This represents a $4.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.78%. This is a boost from Norfolk Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.09. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 3rd. Norfolk Southern’s payout ratio is presently 40.92%.
In other news, President Alan H. Shaw sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.70, for a total value of $256,700.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO James A. Squires sold 62,880 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.36, for a total transaction of $16,937,356.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 64,580 shares of company stock worth $17,379,914. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.
About Norfolk Southern (Get Rating)
Norfolk Southern Corp. is a transportation company, which owns a freight railroad. It engages in the rail transportation of raw materials, intermediate products, and finished goods primarily in the Southeast, East, and Midwest and, via interchange with rail carriers to and from the rest of the United States.
See Also
Want to see what other hedge funds are holding NSC? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Norfolk Southern Co. (NYSE:NSC – Get Rating).
Want More Great Investing Ideas?
Receive News & Ratings for Norfolk Southern Daily – Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for Norfolk Southern and related companies with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.