Planning Directions Inc. Invests $204,000 in Norfolk Southern Co. (NYSE:NSC)

Planning Directions Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Norfolk Southern Co. (NYSE:NSC) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 862 shares of the railroad operator’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Norfolk Southern by 95,518.3% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,028,232 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $746,217,000 after buying an additional 3,025,065 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Norfolk Southern in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $537,007,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Norfolk Southern by 86.7% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,724,821 shares of the railroad operator’s stock valued at $671,451,000 after purchasing an additional 1,265,666 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Norfolk Southern by 69.0% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,723,398 shares of the railroad operator’s stock valued at $536,319,000 after purchasing an additional 1,112,261 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its stake in Norfolk Southern by 33.5% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,546,214 shares of the railroad operator’s stock valued at $627,438,000 after purchasing an additional 638,384 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NSC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Norfolk Southern from $240.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Norfolk Southern from $252.00 to $283.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Norfolk Southern in a research report on Monday, April 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $300.00 target price on the stock. Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of Norfolk Southern from $270.00 to $265.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Norfolk Southern from $236.00 to $253.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $262.74.

Norfolk Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NSC traded up $1.01 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $241.28. 963,434 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 938,244. The stock has a market cap of $59.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.08, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. Norfolk Southern Co. has a twelve month low of $183.09 and a twelve month high of $263.66. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $252.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $230.80.

Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 26th. The railroad operator reported $2.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.87 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. Norfolk Southern had a return on equity of 21.06% and a net margin of 15.03%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.42 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Norfolk Southern Co. will post 11.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Norfolk Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 2nd were paid a dividend of $1.35 per share. This represents a $5.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 1st. Norfolk Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.33%.

About Norfolk Southern

Norfolk Southern Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the rail transportation of raw materials, intermediate products, and finished goods in the United States. The company transports agriculture, forest, and consumer products comprising soybeans, wheat, corn, fertilizers, livestock and poultry feed, food products, food oils, flour, sweeteners, ethanol, lumber and wood products, pulp board and paper products, wood fibers, wood pulp, beverages, and canned goods; chemicals consist of sulfur and related chemicals, petroleum products comprising crude oil, chlorine and bleaching compounds, plastics, rubber, industrial chemicals, chemical wastes, sand, and natural gas liquids; metals and construction materials, such as steel, aluminum products, machinery, scrap metals, cement, aggregates, minerals, clay, transportation equipment, and military-related products; and automotive, including finished motor vehicles and automotive parts, as well as coal.