Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC Buys Shares of 7,770 CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX)

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC purchased a new position in shares of CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 7,770 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $251,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Interval Partners LP increased its holdings in CSX by 849.0% in the 2nd quarter. Interval Partners LP now owns 5,118,751 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $171,222,000 after purchasing an additional 4,579,344 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of CSX by 318.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,270,966 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $112,946,000 after buying an additional 2,489,329 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its stake in CSX by 3,243.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 2,192,246 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $73,331,000 after acquiring an additional 2,126,668 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 1,884,998 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC grew its position in CSX by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,612,862 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $539,112,000 after acquiring an additional 1,447,651 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.57% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on CSX shares. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of CSX from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on shares of CSX from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Stephens dropped their target price on CSX from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays lifted their price target on CSX from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded CSX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $37.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.67.

CSX Stock Performance

CSX traded down $0.41 on Friday, hitting $31.79. 4,695,228 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,007,515. CSX Co. has a 12-month low of $31.43 and a 12-month high of $40.12. The company has a 50 day moving average of $34.12 and a 200-day moving average of $33.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.30 billion, a PE ratio of 17.09, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.22.

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

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.