Norfolk Southern Corporation $NSC Shares Purchased by Blair William & Co. IL

Blair William & Co. IL grew its holdings in shares of Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,999 shares of the railroad operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,006 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Norfolk Southern were worth $10,751,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NSC. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Norfolk Southern by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,321,359 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $4,813,114,000 after acquiring an additional 232,195 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Norfolk Southern by 31.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,319,010 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $2,680,910,000 after purchasing an additional 2,710,930 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of Norfolk Southern by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,159,070 shares of the railroad operator’s stock valued at $983,161,000 after acquiring an additional 138,678 shares during the period. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Norfolk Southern by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 3,998,335 shares of the railroad operator’s stock valued at $947,006,000 after acquiring an additional 29,753 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in Norfolk Southern by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,128,102 shares of the railroad operator’s stock valued at $740,891,000 after purchasing an additional 189,076 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on NSC. Benchmark downgraded shares of Norfolk Southern from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Norfolk Southern from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. TD Cowen raised Norfolk Southern from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $263.00 to $323.00 in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada downgraded shares of Norfolk Southern from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Norfolk Southern from $288.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Norfolk Southern presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $293.25.

Norfolk Southern Stock Performance

NYSE:NSC opened at $288.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $284.20 and its 200-day moving average is $258.06. Norfolk Southern Corporation has a 52-week low of $201.63 and a 52-week high of $302.24. The company has a market cap of $64.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.48, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.33.

Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The railroad operator reported $3.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.24 by $0.05. Norfolk Southern had a net margin of 27.51% and a return on equity of 19.35%. The business had revenue of $3.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. Norfolk Southern has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Norfolk Southern Corporation will post 13 earnings per share for the current year.

Norfolk Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 1st were paid a dividend of $1.35 per share. This represents a $5.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 1st. Norfolk Southern’s dividend payout ratio is 36.49%.

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.