New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Reduces Stock Position in CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board reduced its position in shares of CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 92,418 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 3,200 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in CSX were worth $2,982,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Perpetual Ltd bought a new position in CSX in the fourth quarter worth about $83,301,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of CSX by 318.5% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,270,966 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $112,946,000 after purchasing an additional 2,489,329 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of CSX by 10.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,612,862 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $539,112,000 after purchasing an additional 1,447,651 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its stake in shares of CSX by 616.4% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,114,542 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $35,966,000 after purchasing an additional 958,957 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of CSX by 3.6% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,656,931 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $851,404,000 after purchasing an additional 857,302 shares in the last quarter. 73.57% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on CSX shares. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of CSX from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $38.00 target price on shares of CSX in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $37.00 target price (down previously from $38.00) on shares of CSX in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $38.00 price target on shares of CSX in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Loop Capital cut shares of CSX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the company from $40.00 to $34.00 in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.16.

CSX Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of CSX stock opened at $33.37 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $32.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $33.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $64.35 billion, a PE ratio of 18.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.23. CSX Co. has a 1-year low of $31.43 and a 1-year high of $40.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 1.23.

CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The transportation company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.02). CSX had a return on equity of 28.15% and a net margin of 23.95%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that CSX Co. will post 1.86 earnings per share for the current year.

CSX Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This is a boost from CSX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. CSX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.82%.

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.