Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. Buys 226 Shares of Norfolk Southern Co. (NYSE:NSC)

Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Norfolk Southern Co. (NYSE:NSC) by 6.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,586 shares of the railroad operator’s stock after buying an additional 226 shares during the period. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc.’s holdings in Norfolk Southern were worth $848,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of NSC. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of Norfolk Southern by 2.2% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 5,352 shares of the railroad operator’s stock valued at $1,054,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Norfolk Southern by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,604 shares of the railroad operator’s stock valued at $3,073,000 after acquiring an additional 1,231 shares during the last quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Norfolk Southern by 0.5% in the third quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,181 shares of the railroad operator’s stock worth $4,762,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the period. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Norfolk Southern during the third quarter worth $68,000. Finally, BTC Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Norfolk Southern by 0.6% during the third quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 39,342 shares of the railroad operator’s stock valued at $7,748,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the period. 75.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on NSC. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Norfolk Southern from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $272.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, January 22nd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Norfolk Southern from $250.00 to $245.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Loop Capital upped their price objective on Norfolk Southern from $261.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Morgan Stanley lowered Norfolk Southern from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $185.00 to $175.00 in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of Norfolk Southern from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $255.00 to $305.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Norfolk Southern has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $262.74.

Norfolk Southern Stock Performance

Shares of Norfolk Southern stock traded up $0.42 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $245.03. 1,114,960 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,265,471. Norfolk Southern Co. has a 52-week low of $183.09 and a 52-week high of $263.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $60.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.50, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $252.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $231.71.

Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. Norfolk Southern had a net margin of 15.03% and a return on equity of 21.06%. The business’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 EPS for the current year.

Norfolk Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.35 per share. This represents a $5.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.20%. Norfolk Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.