CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) Director Sells $999,180.00 in Stock

CSX Corporation (NASDAQ:CSX) Director John Zillmer sold 19,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.24, for a total value of $999,180.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 334,214 shares in the company, valued at $17,125,125.36. The trade was a 5.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

CSX Stock Down 0.5%

CSX opened at $51.99 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $48.86 and a 200-day moving average of $45.51. The company has a market capitalization of $95.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.21. CSX Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $33.63 and a fifty-two week high of $53.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.84.

CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The transportation company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.04. CSX had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The business had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.96 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.44 earnings per share. CSX’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that CSX Corporation will post 2.04 EPS for the current year.

CSX Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 30th will be given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 30th. CSX’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.02%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $49.00 price target on shares of CSX in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Bank of America raised their price objective on CSX from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on CSX from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $54.00 price objective (up from $53.00) on shares of CSX in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $54.00 target price on CSX in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.20.

Institutional Trading of CSX

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in CSX in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $7,655,277,000. XXEC Inc. bought a new stake in shares of CSX during the second quarter worth $765,595,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of CSX during the second quarter worth $1,598,962,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of CSX during the second quarter worth $950,325,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of CSX during the second quarter worth $747,001,000. Institutional investors own 73.57% of the company’s stock.

About CSX

CSX Corporation is a transportation company whose primary business is freight railroading through its CSX Transportation subsidiary. The company operates an extensive rail network across the eastern United States, serving major industrial centers, population hubs, ports and distribution markets.

CSX transports a broad range of products, including chemicals, agricultural and food products, forest products, minerals, metals, automotive goods and other manufactured merchandise. Its services also include intermodal transportation, which combines rail service with trucks and containers, as well as the movement of coal and other bulk commodities.

The company traces its roots to the formation of CSX Corporation in 1980 through the merger of Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries.