UNP vs. NSC, CNI, CP, CSX, UPS, FDX, ODFL, RYAAY, DAL, and JBHT
Should you be buying Union Pacific stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Union Pacific include Norfolk Southern (NSC), Canadian National Railway (CNI), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP), CSX (CSX), United Parcel Service (UPS), FedEx (FDX), Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), Ryanair (RYAAY), Delta Air Lines (DAL), and J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT). These companies are all part of the "transportation" sector.
Union Pacific vs.
Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP) and Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC) are both large-cap transportation companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, media sentiment, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, community ranking, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.
Union Pacific has a net margin of 27.91% compared to Norfolk Southern's net margin of 23.40%. Union Pacific's return on equity of 57.75% beat Norfolk Southern's return on equity.
In the previous week, Union Pacific had 5 more articles in the media than Norfolk Southern. MarketBeat recorded 23 mentions for Union Pacific and 18 mentions for Norfolk Southern. Norfolk Southern's average media sentiment score of 0.84 beat Union Pacific's score of 0.58 indicating that Norfolk Southern is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Union Pacific pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Norfolk Southern pays an annual dividend of $5.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Union Pacific pays out 45.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Norfolk Southern pays out 41.5% 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.
Union Pacific presently has a consensus target price of $217.41, suggesting a potential upside of 12.59%. Norfolk Southern has a consensus target price of $242.48, suggesting a potential upside of 15.15%. Given Norfolk Southern's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Norfolk Southern is more favorable than Union Pacific.
Union Pacific received 435 more outperform votes than Norfolk Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.28% of users gave Union Pacific an outperform vote while only 58.13% of users gave Norfolk Southern an outperform vote.
Union Pacific has higher revenue and earnings than Norfolk Southern. Norfolk Southern is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Union Pacific, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
77.3% of Union Pacific shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.0% of Norfolk Southern shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Union Pacific shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Norfolk Southern shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Union Pacific has a beta of 1.1, suggesting that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Norfolk Southern has a beta of 1.29, suggesting that its share price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Union Pacific beats Norfolk Southern on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UNP and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartMedia 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.
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