ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Trims Holdings in CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. lessened its stake in CSX Co. (NASDAQ:CSX) by 8.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,265 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 584 shares during the quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in CSX were worth $217,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its position in shares of CSX by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 58,100,864 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,799,965,000 after acquiring an additional 470,000 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in CSX by 1.8% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 39,236,265 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,172,727,000 after purchasing an additional 690,267 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of CSX by 10.4% during the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 29,191,044 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $897,624,000 after purchasing an additional 2,748,738 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of CSX by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 24,340,514 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $748,471,000 after buying an additional 739,411 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CSX by 101,926.4% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 23,323,241 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $722,554,000 after buying an additional 23,300,381 shares during the period. 73.57% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of CSX from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of CSX in a report on Thursday. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on CSX from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. StockNews.com lowered CSX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on CSX from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.72.

CSX Price Performance

Shares of CSX stock traded down $0.05 during trading on Friday, hitting $34.34. The stock had a trading volume of 13,615,438 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,428,632. The business has a fifty day moving average of $36.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $34.35. The firm has a market cap of $67.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.87, a PEG ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.18. CSX Co. has a fifty-two week low of $29.03 and a fifty-two week high of $40.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The transportation company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.66 billion. CSX had a net margin of 24.75% and a return on equity of 29.58%. CSX’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.48 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that CSX Co. will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CSX Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were given a $0.12 dividend. This is a positive change from CSX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.40%. CSX’s payout ratio is 26.37%.

CSX Company Profile

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.