Dallas, Texas 10/24/2013 (Financialstrend) – CSX Corporation (NYSE:CSX) is S&P 500 tracked stock which has seen its market value go up by 1.08% in the past week. It has a market capitalization of $26.61 billion. In the past 12 months the rail road company had posted close to $11.91 billion. It has paid out dividend of $0.6 per share leading to a 2.29% dividend payout. As of close of business on October 23, the stock was trading at $26.17 per share up 0.31% from its previous day close. This has taken the stock close to its 52 week high valuation.
On October 17, rating firms BMO Capital has downgraded CSX to Market Perform from Outperform. The down grade followed RBC capital also pegging the rail road stock down by one notch to Sector Perform even in spite of stronger 4Q guidance and strong 3Q results. The downgrade was advised by the rating firms considering the expected increase in rail price and the competitive pricing environment the stock is facing. Post the down grade, the stock slipped by close to 2.1% before recovering smartly through the whole of this week.
Prior to the downgrade the raid road firm has announced string third quarter operational results. On the back of the strong build up in momentum, the management has given improved estimations for 4Q and rest of FY14. In the third quarter, the company had managed to increase its net profit by close to 1.8% thanks to increase in volume of sales and an incremental increase in railing pricing. It also commented about the drop in demand for coal dragging down the revenue generation to a certain extent. Due to better performance in 3Q, the stock of is expecting to see revenue go up slightly in 2013, in comparison to 2012 earnings. Long term investors in the stock would be hoping that the stock can continue to post steady growth.
