O Brien Wealth Partners LLC Purchases 605 Shares of Norfolk Southern Co. (NYSE:NSC)

O Brien Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Norfolk Southern Co. (NYSE:NSC – Get Rating) by 39.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,152 shares of the railroad operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 605 shares during the period. Norfolk Southern accounts for approximately 0.2% of O Brien Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest position. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Norfolk Southern were worth $530,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Norfolk Southern by 14.6% in the 3rd quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,714 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $360,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Norfolk Southern by 22.4% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 26,258 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $6,471,000 after acquiring an additional 4,807 shares during the period. National Pension Service increased its position in shares of Norfolk Southern by 0.9% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 378,114 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $81,124,000 after acquiring an additional 3,494 shares during the period. Gallacher Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Norfolk Southern during the fourth quarter worth approximately $408,000. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Norfolk Southern by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 241,510 shares of the railroad operator’s stock valued at $59,513,000 after buying an additional 8,487 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.98% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Norfolk Southern from $272.00 to $269.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 14th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Norfolk Southern from $250.00 to $235.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Norfolk Southern from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $242.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 17th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Norfolk Southern in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Norfolk Southern from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $255.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 21st. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Norfolk Southern has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $242.48.

Norfolk Southern Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NSC stock traded down $0.17 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $211.05. The company had a trading volume of 309,394 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,619,433. The company’s fifty day moving average is $207.73 and its 200 day moving average is $230.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.66. Norfolk Southern Co. has a fifty-two week low of $196.33 and a fifty-two week high of $264.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.04 billion, a PE ratio of 16.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.29.

Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 26th. The railroad operator reported $3.32 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.17. Norfolk Southern had a net margin of 23.40% and a return on equity of 25.76%. The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.93 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Norfolk Southern Co. will post 13.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Norfolk Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, May 20th. Investors of record on Friday, May 5th were paid a dividend of $1.35 per share. This represents a $5.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 4th. Norfolk Southern’s payout ratio is currently 41.51%.

Norfolk Southern Company Profile

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Norfolk Southern Corp. is a transportation company, which engages in the rail transportation of raw materials, intermediate products, and finished goods. The company also transports overseas freight through several Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports. Its services include property leases and sales, wire line or pipeline and fiber optics projects, access property, managing private crossings, promoting businesses with signboards, and natural resource management.