Latitude Advisors LLC Reduces Holdings in CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX)

Latitude Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in shares of CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,826 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 314 shares during the quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC’s holdings in CSX were worth $445,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its position in CSX by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 58,100,864 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,799,965,000 after purchasing an additional 470,000 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in CSX by 1.8% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 39,236,265 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,172,727,000 after purchasing an additional 690,267 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of CSX by 10.4% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 29,191,044 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $897,624,000 after purchasing an additional 2,748,738 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of CSX by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 24,340,514 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $748,471,000 after purchasing an additional 739,411 shares during the period. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of CSX by 101,926.4% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 23,323,241 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $722,554,000 after purchasing an additional 23,300,381 shares during the period. 73.57% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on CSX. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of CSX in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of CSX from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Benchmark raised their price objective on shares of CSX from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of CSX in a research note on Monday, April 8th. They set a “hold” rating and a $40.00 target price on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of CSX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.28.

CSX Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CSX traded down $0.53 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $34.31. 3,743,151 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,638,665. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $37.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $34.32. The firm has a market cap of $67.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.18. CSX Co. has a 12-month low of $29.03 and a 12-month high of $40.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.05.

CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The transportation company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.63 billion. CSX had a net margin of 25.35% and a return on equity of 30.52%. CSX’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.49 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that CSX Co. will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CSX Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. This is a boost from CSX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. CSX’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.09%.

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.