UNP vs. NSC, CNI, CP, CSX, UPS, GE, FDX, ODFL, DAL, and RYAAY
Should you be buying Union Pacific stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Union Pacific include Norfolk Southern (NSC), Canadian National Railway (CNI), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP), CSX (CSX), United Parcel Service (UPS), General Electric (GE), FedEx (FDX), Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), Delta Air Lines (DAL), and Ryanair (RYAAY). These companies are all part of the "transportation" sector.
Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC) and Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP) are both large-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, community ranking, media sentiment and dividends.
Norfolk Southern has a beta of 1.3, suggesting that its share price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Union Pacific has a beta of 1.06, suggesting that its share price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500.
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.
In the previous week, Norfolk Southern had 8 more articles in the media than Union Pacific. MarketBeat recorded 23 mentions for Norfolk Southern and 15 mentions for Union Pacific. Norfolk Southern's average media sentiment score of 0.87 beat Union Pacific's score of 0.48 indicating that Union Pacific is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
75.1% of Norfolk Southern shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.4% of Union Pacific shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Norfolk Southern shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Union Pacific shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock 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.
Norfolk Southern presently has a consensus price target of $262.32, suggesting a potential upside of 13.03%. Union Pacific has a consensus price target of $259.61, suggesting a potential upside of 5.57%. Given Union Pacific's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Norfolk Southern is more favorable than Union Pacific.
Norfolk Southern pays an annual dividend of $5.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Union Pacific pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. 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. Union Pacific pays out 49.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Norfolk Southern has raised 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.
Union Pacific received 436 more outperform votes than Norfolk Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.21% of users gave Union Pacific an outperform vote while only 57.40% of users gave Norfolk Southern an outperform vote.
Summary
Union Pacific beats Norfolk Southern on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get Union Pacific News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for UNP and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UNP 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.
Union Pacific Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
