Norfolk Southern Co. (NSC) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 2nd

Norfolk Southern Co. (NYSE:NSC) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 3rd will be given a dividend of 1.35 per share by the railroad operator on Monday, May 20th. This represents a $5.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 2nd.

Norfolk Southern has raised its dividend payment by an average of 12.8% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 3 years. Norfolk Southern has a payout ratio of 38.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Norfolk Southern to earn $13.59 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 39.7%.

Norfolk Southern Stock Down 3.6 %

NSC stock opened at $236.14 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $58.14 billion, a PE ratio of 29.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $252.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $232.12. Norfolk Southern has a 52 week low of $183.09 and a 52 week high of $263.66. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 26th. The railroad operator reported $2.83 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.87 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. Norfolk Southern had a net margin of 15.03% and a return on equity of 21.06%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.42 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Norfolk Southern will post 11.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on NSC shares. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Norfolk Southern from $250.00 to $245.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 29th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Norfolk Southern from $236.00 to $253.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Benchmark boosted their target price on Norfolk Southern from $250.00 to $277.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Norfolk Southern from $233.00 to $244.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, UBS Group raised Norfolk Southern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $238.00 to $302.00 in a research note on Monday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $262.74.

Norfolk Southern Company Profile

Norfolk Southern Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the rail transportation of raw materials, intermediate products, and finished goods in the United States. The company transports agriculture, forest, and consumer products comprising soybeans, wheat, corn, fertilizers, livestock and poultry feed, food products, food oils, flour, sweeteners, ethanol, lumber and wood products, pulp board and paper products, wood fibers, wood pulp, beverages, and canned goods; chemicals consist of sulfur and related chemicals, petroleum products comprising crude oil, chlorine and bleaching compounds, plastics, rubber, industrial chemicals, chemical wastes, sand, and natural gas liquids; metals and construction materials, such as steel, aluminum products, machinery, scrap metals, cement, aggregates, minerals, clay, transportation equipment, and military-related products; and automotive, including finished motor vehicles and automotive parts, as well as coal.