Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. Has $3.17 Million Position in Norfolk Southern Co. (NYSE:NSC)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Mar 30th, 2023

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its position in Norfolk Southern Co. (NYSE:NSC – Get Rating) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,873 shares of the railroad operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Norfolk Southern were worth $3,172,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NSC. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Norfolk Southern by 18.3% during the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 7,647,054 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $1,603,203,000 after buying an additional 1,181,936 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Norfolk Southern by 31.4% during the 2nd quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,330,991 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $529,811,000 after buying an additional 557,432 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Norfolk Southern by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,295,294 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $481,323,000 after buying an additional 24,172 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Norfolk Southern by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,166,108 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $492,338,000 after buying an additional 17,430 shares during the last quarter. Finally, London Co. of Virginia lifted its stake in shares of Norfolk Southern by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 1,462,496 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $306,613,000 after buying an additional 27,419 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Argus cut shares of Norfolk Southern from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 15th. Benchmark dropped their price objective on shares of Norfolk Southern from $280.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 26th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Norfolk Southern from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $285.00 to $245.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 4th. Credit Suisse Group dropped their price objective on shares of Norfolk Southern from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Norfolk Southern from $245.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Norfolk Southern presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $249.83.

Norfolk Southern Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE NSC opened at $207.25 on Thursday. Norfolk Southern Co. has a 1 year low of $196.33 and a 1 year high of $291.55. The stock has a market cap of $47.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.30. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $227.28 and a 200 day moving average of $234.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.66.

Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 25th. The railroad operator reported $3.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.41 by $0.01. Norfolk Southern had a net margin of 25.66% and a return on equity of 24.98%. The business had revenue of $3.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.20 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.12 EPS. Norfolk Southern’s revenue was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Norfolk Southern Co. will post 13.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Norfolk Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $1.35 per share. This is a boost from Norfolk Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.24. This represents a $5.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 2nd. Norfolk Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.85%.

About Norfolk Southern

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Norfolk Southern Corp. is a transportation company, which engages in the rail transportation of raw materials, intermediate products, and finished goods. The company also transports overseas freight through several Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports. Its services include property leases and sales, wire line or pipeline and fiber optics projects, access property, managing private crossings, promoting businesses with signboards, and natural resource management.