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.
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 companies based on the strength of their earnings, community ranking, profitability, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.
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.
Union Pacific has a net margin of 26.52% compared to Norfolk Southern's net margin of 11.76%. Union Pacific's return on equity of 44.34% beat Norfolk Southern's return on equity.
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 2.2%. 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.
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 company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Union Pacific shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
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.
In the previous week, Norfolk Southern had 20 more articles in the media than Union Pacific. MarketBeat recorded 48 mentions for Norfolk Southern and 28 mentions for Union Pacific. Union Pacific's average media sentiment score of 0.66 beat Norfolk Southern's score of 0.49 indicating that Union Pacific is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Norfolk Southern has a beta of 1.3, indicating that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Union Pacific has a beta of 1.06, indicating that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Norfolk Southern presently has a consensus price target of $262.32, indicating a potential upside of 11.36%. Union Pacific has a consensus price target of $259.61, indicating a potential upside of 8.06%. Given Norfolk Southern's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Norfolk Southern is more favorable than Union Pacific.
Summary
Union Pacific beats Norfolk Southern on 15 of the 20 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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