Latitude Advisors LLC Sells 314 Shares of CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX)

Latitude Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX) by 2.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 12,826 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 314 shares during the quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC’s holdings in CSX were worth $445,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of CSX by 101,926.4% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 23,323,241 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $722,554,000 after purchasing an additional 23,300,381 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CSX in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $621,349,000. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of CSX by 558.0% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 6,800,925 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $203,620,000 after acquiring an additional 5,767,302 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in CSX by 395.9% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 5,208,520 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $195,059,000 after acquiring an additional 4,158,204 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in CSX by 416.8% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,070,296 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $155,912,000 after purchasing an additional 4,089,150 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.57% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on CSX shares. Benchmark lifted their target price on CSX from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of CSX from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of CSX in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of CSX in a report on Monday, April 8th. They set a “hold” rating and a $40.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of CSX from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, CSX has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.28.

CSX Price Performance

Shares of CSX stock traded down $0.53 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $34.31. The stock had a trading volume of 3,743,151 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,638,665. CSX Co. has a 12 month low of $29.03 and a 12 month high of $40.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.16 billion, a PE ratio of 18.93, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.32.

CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The transportation company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.01. CSX had a net margin of 25.35% and a return on equity of 30.52%. The business had revenue of $3.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.63 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.49 earnings per share. CSX’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that CSX Co. will post 1.97 EPS for the current year.

CSX Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. This is a positive change from CSX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.40%. CSX’s payout ratio is presently 26.09%.

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.