Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) stock jumped 0.11% on Thursday to $211.22 against a previous-day closing price of $210.98. With 1.04 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 1.63 million shares. During the session, the Railroads company that operates in wider Industrials sector, reached to the highest price of $212.28 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $209.90. The 52-week range on NSC shows that it touched its highest point at $264.22 and its lowest point at $196.33 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $234.54. With its current market cap of 47.74 billion, NSC has annualized dividend of $5.40 while the current yield stands at 2.56%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.27.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of NSC was down-trending over the past week, with a drop of -2.29%, but this was up by 5.07% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -6.03% while six-month performance fell -15.88%. The stock lost -9.08% in the past year, while it has lost -14.28% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for NSC yields 12.99 with Next year EPS estimates of 14.42. For the next quarter, that number is 3.24. This implies an EPS growth rate of 14.50% for this year and 8.04% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 5.47% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 14.20%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 227.70 million NSC shares are outstanding with a float of 227.46 million shares on hand for trading. On May 14, 2023, short shares totaled 2.75 million, which was 1.21% higher than short shares on Apr 13, 2023. In addition to Mr. Alan H. Shaw as the firm’s Pres, CEO & Director, Mr. Mark R. George serves as its Exec. VP & CFO.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 76.38% of NSC’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 39.82% of NSC, in contrast to 36.80% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 1.52%. As the largest shareholder in NSC with 7.67% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 17,449,282 shares worth 17,449,282. A second-largest stockholder of NSC, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 10,273,315 shares, controlling over 4.51% of the firm’s shares. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. is the third largest shareholder in NSC, holding 9,223,775 shares or 4.05% stake. With a 3.11% stake in NSC, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 7,076,275 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard 500 Index Fund, which owns about 2.35% of NSC stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 5,346,355 shares valued at 1.09 billion. Washington Mutual Investors Fund holds 2.31% of the stake in NSC, owning 5,248,399 shares worth 1.07 billion.
An Overview of Recent Financials:
Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on Mar 30, 2023, NSC reported revenue of $3.25B and operating income of $1.33B. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was $1.62B and diluted EPS was $3.45.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for NSC since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With NSC analysts setting a high price target of $288.00 and a low target of $174.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $237.92. Based on these targets, NSC could surge 36.35% to reach the target high and fall by -17.62% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 12.64% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded NSC stock several times over the past three months with 4 Buys and 6 Sells. In these transactions, 1,949 shares were bought while 2,665 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 45 while that of sell transactions has risen to 57 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 161,373 while 152,848 shares were sold.
