CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX) to Issue $0.12 Quarterly Dividend

CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 8th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 31st will be given a dividend of 0.12 per share by the transportation company on Friday, June 14th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.40%.

CSX has raised its dividend by an average of 8.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 20 years. CSX has a payout ratio of 22.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect CSX to earn $2.17 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 22.1%.

CSX Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of CSX stock opened at $34.22 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.64. CSX has a 1 year low of $29.03 and a 1 year high of $40.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The company has a market cap of $66.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.80, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.19.

CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The transportation company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.66 billion. CSX had a net margin of 24.75% and a return on equity of 29.58%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.48 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that CSX will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CSX shares. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of CSX from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of CSX from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of CSX from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of CSX from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of CSX in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $38.00.

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.