Shares of CSX Corp. are up about 4.3% in Thursday’s pre-market trading after the transportation company approved an additional share repurchase of $5 billion and posted better-than-expected third-quarter earnings .
CSX’s (CSX) 3Q EPS declined to $0.96 from $1.08 in the year-ago period but exceeded the Street consensus of $0.92. 3Q revenues fell 11% to $2.65 billion and missed analysts’ expectations of $2.68 billion. The company provides rail-to-truck transload services and solutions to customers across a broad array of markets, including energy, industrial, construction, agricultural, and consumer products.
CSX said that sales declined “as intermodal volume growth was more than offset by declines in coal and merchandise volumes as well as lower fuel surcharge revenue.”
The company has approximately $1.1 billion remaining under its existing share repurchase program. (See CSX stock analysis on TipRanks).
On Oct. 16, Barclays analyst Brandon Oglenski raised the stock’s price target to $92 (16.9% upside potential) from $78 and maintained a Buy rating, as the analyst believes that fundamentals have “clearly recovered ahead of previously bearish expectations.” He added that the government stimulus package and shift in consumer spending to goods from services has “provided a significant boost” to supply chain activity.
Currently, the Street has a bullish outlook on the stock. The Strong Buy analyst consensus is based on 16 Buys and 5 Holds. The average price target of $85.05 implies upside potential of over 8% to current levels. Shares are already up by 8.8% year-to-date.
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