NSC vs. CSX, JBHT, CNI, CP, UNP, UPS, RVSN, FDX, DAL, and WAB
Should you be buying Norfolk Southern stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Norfolk Southern include CSX (CSX), J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT), Canadian National Railway (CNI), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP), Union Pacific (UNP), United Parcel Service (UPS), Rail Vision (RVSN), FedEx (FDX), Delta Air Lines (DAL), and Wabtec (WAB). These companies are all part of the "transportation" sector.
Norfolk Southern vs. Its Competitors
CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) and Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC) are both large-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, media sentiment, risk, earnings, dividends, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.
CSX has a beta of 1.23, suggesting that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Norfolk Southern has a beta of 1.31, suggesting that its stock price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Norfolk Southern has a net margin of 27.40% compared to CSX's net margin of 22.66%. CSX's return on equity of 26.42% beat Norfolk Southern's return on equity.
73.6% of CSX shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.1% of Norfolk Southern shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of CSX shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Norfolk Southern shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
CSX presently has a consensus target price of $35.14, indicating a potential upside of 2.17%. Norfolk Southern has a consensus target price of $274.55, indicating a potential downside of 0.88%. Given CSX's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe CSX is more favorable than Norfolk Southern.
In the previous week, CSX had 14 more articles in the media than Norfolk Southern. MarketBeat recorded 52 mentions for CSX and 38 mentions for Norfolk Southern. Norfolk Southern's average media sentiment score of 0.90 beat CSX's score of 0.49 indicating that Norfolk Southern is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
CSX has higher revenue and earnings than Norfolk Southern. Norfolk Southern is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CSX, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
CSX pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Norfolk Southern pays an annual dividend of $5.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. CSX pays out 31.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Norfolk Southern pays out 36.9% 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. CSX has raised its dividend for 21 consecutive years.
Summary
CSX beats Norfolk Southern on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
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.
Media Sentiment Over Time
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.
Norfolk Southern Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:NSC) was last updated on 7/21/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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