Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Has $2.02 Million Stake in CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. decreased its position in shares of CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX) by 1.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 54,535 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 1,000 shares during the quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in CSX were worth $2,022,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CSX. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CSX in the 4th quarter worth about $757,276,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of CSX by 18.1% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 64,807,961 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,246,893,000 after acquiring an additional 9,914,656 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of CSX by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 40,353,078 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,399,104,000 after acquiring an additional 5,041,679 shares in the last quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its position in shares of CSX by 43.8% in the 3rd quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 4,752,117 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $146,128,000 after acquiring an additional 1,446,685 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of CSX by 25.5% in the 4th quarter. M&G Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,993,901 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $139,787,000 after acquiring an additional 810,362 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.57% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CSX. UBS Group lowered their price objective on CSX from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Bank of America decreased their target price on CSX from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of CSX in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on CSX from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on CSX from $37.00 to $36.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.59.

CSX Stock Performance

Shares of CSX stock opened at $33.76 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $66.00 billion, a PE ratio of 18.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $33.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $35.14. CSX Co. has a 52 week low of $29.03 and a 52 week high of $40.12.

CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The transportation company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.66 billion. CSX had a return on equity of 29.58% and a net margin of 24.75%. CSX’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.48 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that CSX Co. will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CSX Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 31st were issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 31st. CSX’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.37%.

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.