FDX vs. NSC, CSX, ODFL, CNI, CP, RYAAY, DAL, WAB, JBHT, and EXPD
Should you be buying FedEx stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of FedEx include Norfolk Southern (NSC), CSX (CSX), Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), Canadian National Railway (CNI), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP), Ryanair (RYAAY), Delta Air Lines (DAL), Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies (WAB), J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT), and Expeditors International of Washington (EXPD). These companies are all part of the "transportation" sector.
FedEx (NYSE:FDX) and Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC) are both large-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, dividends, valuation, media sentiment, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability and risk.
FedEx presently has a consensus target price of $289.56, indicating a potential upside of 13.98%. Norfolk Southern has a consensus target price of $246.31, indicating a potential downside of 3.98%. Given FedEx's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe FedEx is more favorable than Norfolk Southern.
FedEx has a beta of 1.2, indicating that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Norfolk Southern has a beta of 1.3, indicating that its share price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500.
73.6% of FedEx shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.4% of Norfolk Southern shares are held by institutional investors. 8.7% of FedEx shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Norfolk Southern shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
FedEx pays an annual dividend of $5.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Norfolk Southern pays an annual dividend of $5.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. FedEx pays out 29.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Norfolk Southern pays out 67.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.
In the previous week, FedEx had 17 more articles in the media than Norfolk Southern. MarketBeat recorded 33 mentions for FedEx and 16 mentions for Norfolk Southern. Norfolk Southern's average media sentiment score of 0.82 beat FedEx's score of 0.14 indicating that Norfolk Southern is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Norfolk Southern has a net margin of 15.03% compared to FedEx's net margin of 4.87%. Norfolk Southern's return on equity of 21.06% beat FedEx's return on equity.
FedEx received 790 more outperform votes than Norfolk Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.18% of users gave FedEx an outperform vote while only 57.40% of users gave Norfolk Southern an outperform vote.
FedEx has higher revenue and earnings than Norfolk Southern. FedEx 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
FedEx beats Norfolk Southern on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding FDX and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis 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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