NSC vs. UNP, CSX, CP, CNI, FDX, ODFL, DAL, RYAAY, WAB, and UAL
Should you be buying Norfolk Southern stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Norfolk Southern include Union Pacific (UNP), CSX (CSX), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP), Canadian National Railway (CNI), FedEx (FDX), Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), Delta Air Lines (DAL), Ryanair (RYAAY), Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies (WAB), and United Airlines (UAL). These companies are all part of the "transportation" sector.
Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP) and Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC) are both large-cap transportation companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, valuation and community ranking.
Union Pacific has a net margin of 26.52% compared to Union Pacific's net margin of 11.76%. Norfolk Southern's return on equity of 44.34% beat Union Pacific's return on equity.
Union Pacific pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Norfolk Southern pays an annual dividend of $5.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Union Pacific pays out 49.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Norfolk Southern pays out 87.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Norfolk Southern has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Norfolk Southern is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
In the previous week, Norfolk Southern had 8 more articles in the media than Union Pacific. MarketBeat recorded 27 mentions for Norfolk Southern and 19 mentions for Union Pacific. Norfolk Southern's average media sentiment score of 1.04 beat Union Pacific's score of 0.45 indicating that Union Pacific is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Union Pacific received 435 more outperform votes than Norfolk Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.21% of users gave Union Pacific an outperform vote while only 57.43% of users gave Norfolk Southern an outperform vote.
Union Pacific has a beta of 1.06, meaning that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Norfolk Southern has a beta of 1.3, meaning that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Union Pacific currently has a consensus price target of $259.61, suggesting a potential upside of 5.67%. Norfolk Southern has a consensus price target of $260.74, suggesting a potential upside of 12.88%. Given Union Pacific's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Norfolk Southern is more favorable than Union Pacific.
80.4% of Union Pacific shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.1% of Norfolk Southern shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Union Pacific shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Norfolk Southern shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Union Pacific has higher revenue and earnings than Norfolk Southern. Union Pacific is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Norfolk Southern, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Union Pacific beats Norfolk Southern on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding NSC and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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