Royal Bank of Canada Buys 259,634 Shares of CSX Corporation $CSX

Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in CSX Corporation (NASDAQ:CSX) by 2.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,765,150 shares of the transportation company’s stock after acquiring an additional 259,634 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned approximately 0.57% of CSX worth $316,819,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Associated Banc Corp lifted its holdings in shares of CSX by 0.9% in the first quarter. Associated Banc Corp now owns 40,384 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,189,000 after acquiring an additional 356 shares during the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CSX by 1.3% in the first quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 27,335 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $804,000 after acquiring an additional 361 shares during the last quarter. Ullmann Wealth Partners Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CSX by 1.3% in the first quarter. Ullmann Wealth Partners Group LLC now owns 29,276 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $862,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CSX by 4.8% in the first quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 8,254 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $243,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of CSX by 1.2% in the first quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. now owns 32,205 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $948,000 after acquiring an additional 378 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.57% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on CSX shares. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of CSX from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of CSX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $45.00 in a report on Monday, July 21st. Baird R W upgraded shares of CSX to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of CSX from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Benchmark raised their price objective on shares of CSX from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.00.

CSX Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSX opened at $32.51 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $60.61 billion, a PE ratio of 20.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $34.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.77. CSX Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $26.22 and a fifty-two week high of $37.25.

CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The transportation company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.57 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.57 billion. CSX had a net margin of 21.92% and a return on equity of 25.48%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.49 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that CSX Corporation will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current year.

CSX Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. CSX’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.10%.

About CSX

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.