Empirical Finance LLC Increases Stock Holdings in CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX)

Empirical Finance LLC raised its position in CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX) by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 71,157 shares of the transportation company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,169 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in CSX were worth $2,457,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Interval Partners LP raised its stake in shares of CSX by 849.0% in the second quarter. Interval Partners LP now owns 5,118,751 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $171,222,000 after acquiring an additional 4,579,344 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in CSX in the 2nd quarter valued at about $116,430,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake 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. grew its position in shares of CSX by 3,243.0% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 2,192,246 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $73,331,000 after buying an additional 2,126,668 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in shares of CSX by 38.7% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 6,749,827 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $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 Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CSX. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of CSX from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Susquehanna lowered their price objective on CSX from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on CSX from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of CSX from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their target price on CSX from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.78.

CSX Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSX opened at $35.13 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43. The business’s 50 day moving average is $34.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $33.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $67.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.89, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.19. CSX Co. has a 12-month low of $30.86 and a 12-month high of $40.12.

CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) last released 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). CSX had a net margin of 24.77% and a return on equity of 28.92%. The business had revenue of $3.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.68 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.42 EPS. CSX’s revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that CSX Co. will post 1.84 EPS for the current year.

CSX Dividend Announcement

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 issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. CSX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.