FORA Capital LLC Purchases New Stake in CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX)

FORA Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 214,581 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,409,000. CSX makes up approximately 0.9% of FORA Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 26th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CSX. Interval Partners LP boosted its position in CSX by 849.0% during the 2nd quarter. Interval Partners LP now owns 5,118,751 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $171,222,000 after purchasing an additional 4,579,344 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of CSX during the second quarter worth about $116,430,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of CSX by 318.5% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,270,966 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $112,946,000 after buying an additional 2,489,329 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its stake in shares of CSX by 3,243.0% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 2,192,246 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $73,331,000 after buying an additional 2,126,668 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of CSX by 38.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 6,749,827 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $225,917,000 after buying an additional 1,884,998 shares during the period. 73.57% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on CSX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of CSX from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Loop Capital decreased their target price on shares of CSX from $43.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of CSX from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of CSX from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of CSX in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CSX currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $38.78.

CSX Stock Performance

Shares of CSX stock traded down $0.08 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $36.61. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 513,688 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,641,873. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.39. CSX Co. has a one year low of $31.65 and a one year high of $40.12. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.97. The stock has a market cap of $70.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.19.

CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The transportation company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.68 billion. CSX had a net margin of 24.77% and a return on equity of 28.92%. The business’s revenue was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that CSX Co. will post 1.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CSX Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. CSX’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.81%.

CSX Profile

CSX Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides rail-based freight transportation services. The company offers rail services; and transportation of intermodal containers and trailers, as well as other transportation services, such as rail-to-truck transfers and bulk commodity operations. It also transports chemicals, agricultural and food products, minerals, automotive, forest products, fertilizers, and metals and equipment; and coal, coke, and iron ore to electricity-generating power plants, steel manufacturers, and industrial plants, as well as exports coal to deep-water port facilities.