Norfolk Southern Stock Buy Hold or Sell Recommendation
| NSC Stock | USD 231.29 1.00 0.43% |
Considering the 90-day investment horizon and your above-average risk tolerance, our recommendation regarding Norfolk Southern is 'Hold'. Macroaxis provides Norfolk Southern buy-hold-or-sell recommendation only in the context of selected investment horizon and investor attitude towards risk assumed by holding NSC positions. The advice algorithm takes into account all of Norfolk Southern's available fundamental, technical, and predictive indicators you will find on this site. Key drivers impacting Norfolk Southern's buy or sell advice are summarized below:
Real Value 225.27 | Target Price 234.7 | Hype Value 230.29 | Market Value 231.29 | Naive Value 228.2 |
A buy or sell recommendation provided by Macroaxis is an automated directive regarding whether to purchase or sell Norfolk Southern given historical horizon and risk tolerance towards Norfolk Southern. When Macroaxis issues a 'buy' or 'sell' recommendation for Norfolk Southern, the advice is generated through an automated system that utilizes algorithms and statistical models.
Norfolk |
Execute Norfolk Southern Buy or Sell Advice
The Norfolk recommendation should be used to complement the buy-or-sell advice compiled from the current analysts' consensus on Norfolk Southern. Macroaxis does not own or have any residual interests in Norfolk Southern or other equities on which the buy-or-sell advice is provided. Please provide your input below to execute Norfolk Southern's advice using the current market data and latest reported fundamentals.
Time Horizon
Risk Tolerance
 |  |
Hold
Market Performance | Very Weak | Details | |
Volatility | Very steady | Details | |
Hype Condition | Stale | Details | |
Current Valuation | Fairly Valued | Details | |
Odds Of Distress | Low | Details | |
Economic Sensitivity | Barely shadows the market | Details | |
Investor Sentiment | Impartial | Details | |
Analyst Consensus | Buy | Details | |
Financial Leverage | Not Rated | Details | |
Reporting Quality (M-Score) | Unavailable | Details |
Norfolk Southern Trading Alerts and Improvement Suggestions
| Norfolk Southern generated a negative expected return over the last 90 days | |
| The company has 17.57 B in debt with debt to equity (D/E) ratio of 1.2, which is OK given its current industry classification. Norfolk Southern has a current ratio of 0.95, suggesting that it has not enough short term capital to pay financial commitments when the payables are due. Debt can assist Norfolk Southern until it has trouble settling it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. So, Norfolk Southern's shareholders could walk away with nothing if the company can't fulfill its legal obligations to repay debt. However, a more frequent occurrence is when companies like Norfolk Southern sell additional shares at bargain prices, diluting existing shareholders. Debt, in this case, can be an excellent and much better tool for Norfolk to invest in growth at high rates of return. When we think about Norfolk Southern's use of debt, we should always consider it together with cash and equity. | |
| Over 77.0% of Norfolk Southern shares are owned by institutional investors | |
| Latest headline from businesswire.com: NORFOLK SOUTHERN INVESTIGATION INITIATED by Former Louisiana Attorney General Kahn Swick Foti, LLC Investigates the Officers and Directors of Norfolk Southern Corporation - NSC |
Norfolk Southern Returns Distribution Density
The distribution of Norfolk Southern's historical returns is an attempt to chart the uncertainty of Norfolk Southern's future price movements. The chart of the probability distribution of Norfolk Southern daily returns describes the distribution of returns around its average expected value. We use Norfolk Southern price's Value At Risk and its Upside Potential as a relative measure of the distribution. The graph of the distribution of Norfolk Southern returns is essential to provide solid investment advice for Norfolk Southern.
| Mean Return | -0.11 | Value At Risk | -2.39 | Potential Upside | 1.80 | Standard Deviation | 1.34 |
Return Density |
| Distribution |
Investment risk management requires an estimate of the probability of extreme price changes. Therefore, the correct representation of the distribution of Norfolk Southern historical returns presented in an easy-to-digest graphical form helps investors and money managers understand the risk-reward trade-off of different investement strategies.
Norfolk Stock Institutional Investors
Have you ever been surprised when a price of an equity instrument such as Norfolk Southern is soaring high without any particular reason? This is usually happening because many institutional investors are aggressively trading Norfolk Southern backward and forwards among themselves. Norfolk Southern's institutional investor refers to the entity that pools money to purchase Norfolk Southern's securities or originates loans. Institutional investors include commercial and private banks, credit unions, insurance companies, pension funds, hedge funds, endowments, and mutual funds. Operating companies that invest excess capital in these types of assets may also be included in the term and may influence corporate governance by exercising voting rights in their investments.
| Shares | Northern Trust Corp | 2023-12-31 | 3 M | Goldman Sachs Group Inc | 2023-12-31 | 2.8 M | Legal & General Group Plc | 2023-12-31 | 2.5 M | Morgan Stanley - Brokerage Accounts | 2023-12-31 | 2.4 M | Norges Bank | 2023-12-31 | 2.4 M | Capital World Investors | 2023-12-31 | 2.2 M | Dimensional Fund Advisors, Inc. | 2023-12-31 | 2 M | Bank Of New York Mellon Corp | 2023-12-31 | 2 M | London Company Of Virginia | 2023-12-31 | 1.9 M | Vanguard Group Inc | 2023-12-31 | 18.5 M | Blackrock Inc | 2023-12-31 | 14.4 M |
Norfolk Southern Cash Flow Accounts
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 (projected) | ||
| Change To Inventory | 15M | (37M) | 23M | 3M | (11M) | (10.5M) | |
| Change In Cash | 134M | 535M | (276M) | (383M) | 1.1B | 1.2B | |
| Free Cash Flow | 1.9B | 2.1B | 2.8B | 2.3B | 830M | 908.8M | |
| Depreciation | 1.1B | 1.2B | 1.2B | 1.2B | 1.3B | 696.1M | |
| Other Non Cash Items | (118M) | (248M) | (176M) | (151M) | (216M) | (205.2M) | |
| Dividends Paid | 949M | 960M | 1.0B | 1.2B | 1.2B | 1.3B | |
| Capital Expenditures | 2.0B | 1.5B | 1.5B | 1.9B | 2.3B | 1.4B | |
| Net Income | 2.7B | 2.0B | 3.0B | 3.3B | 1.8B | 1.5B | |
| End Period Cash Flow | 580M | 1.1B | 839M | 456M | 1.6B | 1.6B | |
| Investments | (18M) | (13M) | 89M | (1.6B) | (1.9B) | (1.8B) | |
| Change Receivables | 87M | 71M | (133M) | (171M) | (153.9M) | (146.2M) | |
| Change To Netincome | 170M | 339M | (78M) | (68M) | (61.2M) | (64.3M) |
Norfolk Southern Greeks
Most traded equities are subject to two types of risk - systematic (i.e., market) and unsystematic (i.e., nonmarket or company-specific) risk. Unsystematic risk is the risk that events specific to Norfolk Southern or Ground Transportation sector will adversely affect the stock's price. This type of risk can be diversified away by owning several different stocks in different industries whose stock prices have shown a small correlation to each other. On the other hand, systematic risk is the risk that Norfolk Southern's price will be affected by overall stock market movements and cannot be diversified away. So, no matter how many positions you have, you cannot eliminate market risk. However, you can measure a Norfolk stock's historical response to market movements and buy it if you are comfortable with its volatility direction. Beta and standard deviation are two commonly used measures to help you make the right decision.
α | Alpha over NYSE Composite | -0.2 | |
β | Beta against NYSE Composite | 1.07 | |
σ | Overall volatility | 1.35 | |
Ir | Information ratio | -0.14 |
Norfolk Southern Volatility Alert
Norfolk Southern exhibits very low volatility with skewness of -0.8 and kurtosis of 1.02. Understanding different market volatility trends often help investors to time the market. Properly using volatility indicators enable traders to measure Norfolk Southern's stock risk against market volatility during both bullish and bearish trends. The higher level of volatility that comes with bear markets can directly impact Norfolk Southern's stock price while adding stress to investors as they watch their shares' value plummet. This usually forces investors to rebalance their portfolios by buying different financial instruments as prices fall.Norfolk Southern Implied Volatility
Norfolk Southern's implied volatility exposes the market's sentiment of Norfolk Southern stock's possible movements over time. However, it does not forecast the overall direction of its price. In a nutshell, if Norfolk Southern's implied volatility is high, the market thinks the stock has potential for high price swings in either direction. On the other hand, the low implied volatility suggests that Norfolk Southern stock will not fluctuate a lot when Norfolk Southern's options are near their expiration.
Norfolk Southern Fundamentals Vs Peers
Comparing Norfolk Southern's fundamentals to the average values of its peers is one of the most widely used and accepted methods of equity analyses. It helps to analyze Norfolk Southern's direct or indirect competition across all of the common fundamentals between Norfolk Southern and the related equities. This way, we can detect undervalued stocks with similar characteristics as Norfolk Southern or determine the stocks which would be an excellent addition to an existing portfolio. Peer analysis of Norfolk Southern's fundamental indicators could also be used in its relative valuation, which is a method of valuing Norfolk Southern by comparing valuation metrics with those of similar companies.
| Better Than Average | Worse Than Average | Compare Norfolk Southern to competition |
| Fundamentals | Norfolk Southern | Peer Average |
| Return On Equity | 0.11 | -0.31 |
| Return On Asset | 0.055 | -0.14 |
| Profit Margin | 0.12 % | (1.27) % |
| Operating Margin | 0.08 % | (5.51) % |
| Current Valuation | 69.49 B | 16.62 B |
| Shares Outstanding | 225.91 M | 571.82 M |
| Shares Owned By Insiders | 0.05 % | 10.09 % |
| Shares Owned By Institutions | 76.55 % | 39.21 % |
| Number Of Shares Shorted | 1.43 M | 4.71 M |
| Price To Earning | 18.90 X | 28.72 X |
| Price To Book | 4.34 X | 9.51 X |
| Price To Sales | 4.57 X | 11.42 X |
| Revenue | 12.16 B | 9.43 B |
| Gross Profit | 6.16 B | 27.38 B |
| EBITDA | 2.85 B | 3.9 B |
| Net Income | 1.83 B | 570.98 M |
| Cash And Equivalents | 456 M | 2.7 B |
| Cash Per Share | 5.24 X | 5.01 X |
| Total Debt | 17.57 B | 5.32 B |
| Debt To Equity | 1.20 % | 48.70 % |
| Current Ratio | 0.97 X | 2.16 X |
| Book Value Per Share | 55.49 X | 1.93 K |
| Cash Flow From Operations | 3.18 B | 971.22 M |
| Short Ratio | 1.21 X | 4.00 X |
| Earnings Per Share | 6.22 X | 3.12 X |
| Price To Earnings To Growth | 1.21 X | 4.89 X |
| Target Price | 272.85 | |
| Number Of Employees | 20.7 K | 18.84 K |
| Beta | 1.3 | -0.15 |
| Market Capitalization | 52.03 B | 19.03 B |
| Total Asset | 41.65 B | 29.47 B |
| Retained Earnings | 10.7 B | 9.33 B |
| Working Capital | 639 M | 1.48 B |
Note: Payment of 4411 shares by Michael Wheeler of Norfolk Southern subject to Rule 16b-3 [view details]
Norfolk Southern Market Momentum
Traders often use several daily momentume indicators to supplement a more traditional technical analysis when analyzing securities such as Norfolk . With many different options, investors must choose the best indicators for them and familiarize themselves with how they work. We suggest combining traditional momentum indicators with more near-term forms of technical analysis such as Accumulation Distribution or Daily Balance Of Power. With their quantitative nature, daily value technical indicators can also be incorporated into your automated trading systems.
About Norfolk Southern Buy or Sell Advice
When is the right time to buy or sell Norfolk Southern? Buying financial instruments such as Norfolk Stock isn't very hard. However, what challenging for most investors is doing it at the right time to beat the market. Proper market timing is something most people cannot do without sophisticated tools, which help to isolate the right opportunities. Macroaxis provides hands-on modules to deliver winning trades and diversify your portfolios on a daily basis. Most of our advising modules are very easy to use and apply.
Please read more on our stock advisor page.| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 (projected) | Short and Long Term Debt Total | 13.8B | 15.2B | 17.6B | 18.4B | Total Assets | 38.5B | 38.9B | 41.7B | 25.5B |
Use Investing Ideas to Build Portfolios
In addition to having Norfolk Southern in your portfolios, you can quickly add positions using our predefined set of ideas and optimize them against your very unique investing style. A single investing idea is a collection of funds, stocks, ETFs, or cryptocurrencies that are programmatically selected from a pull of investment themes. After you determine your investment opportunity, you can then find an optimal portfolio that will maximize potential returns on the chosen idea or minimize its exposure to market volatility.Did You Try This Idea?
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Consumer Goods
Fama and French investing themes focus on testing asset pricing under different economic assumptions. The Consumer Goods theme has 61 constituents at this time.
You can either use a buy-and-hold strategy to lock in the entire theme or actively trade it to take advantage of the short-term price volatility of individual constituents. Macroaxis can help you discover thousands of investment opportunities in different asset classes. In addition, you can partner with us for reliable portfolio optimization as you plan to utilize Consumer Goods Theme or any other thematic opportunities.
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Check out Norfolk Southern Analyst Recommendation to compare Macroaxis Buy or Sell Recommendation with the current analyst consensus. To check ratings for multiple equity instruments, please use the Instant Ratings tool. For information on how to trade Norfolk Stock refer to our How to Trade Norfolk Stock guide.You can also try the Performance Analysis module to check effects of mean-variance optimization against your current asset allocation.
Complementary Tools for Norfolk Stock analysis
When running Norfolk Southern's price analysis, check to measure Norfolk Southern's market volatility, profitability, liquidity, solvency, efficiency, growth potential, financial leverage, and other vital indicators. We have many different tools that can be utilized to determine how healthy Norfolk Southern is operating at the current time. Most of Norfolk Southern's value examination focuses on studying past and present price action to predict the probability of Norfolk Southern's future price movements. You can analyze the entity against its peers and the financial market as a whole to determine factors that move Norfolk Southern's price. Additionally, you may evaluate how the addition of Norfolk Southern to your portfolios can decrease your overall portfolio volatility.
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Is Norfolk Southern's industry expected to grow? Or is there an opportunity to expand the business' product line in the future? Factors like these will boost the valuation of Norfolk Southern. If investors know Norfolk will grow in the future, the company's valuation will be higher. The financial industry is built on trying to define current growth potential and future valuation accurately. All the valuation information about Norfolk Southern listed above have to be considered, but the key to understanding future value is determining which factors weigh more heavily than others.
Quarterly Earnings Growth (0.89) | Dividend Share 5.4 | Earnings Share 6.22 | Revenue Per Share 53.121 | Quarterly Revenue Growth (0.04) |
The market value of Norfolk Southern is measured differently than its book value, which is the value of Norfolk that is recorded on the company's balance sheet. Investors also form their own opinion of Norfolk Southern's value that differs from its market value or its book value, called intrinsic value, which is Norfolk Southern's true underlying value. Investors use various methods to calculate intrinsic value and buy a stock when its market value falls below its intrinsic value. Because Norfolk Southern's market value can be influenced by many factors that don't directly affect Norfolk Southern's underlying business (such as a pandemic or basic market pessimism), market value can vary widely from intrinsic value.
Please note, there is a significant difference between Norfolk Southern's value and its price as these two are different measures arrived at by different means. Investors typically determine if Norfolk Southern is a good investment by looking at such factors as earnings, sales, fundamental and technical indicators, competition as well as analyst projections. However, Norfolk Southern's price is the amount at which it trades on the open market and represents the number that a seller and buyer find agreeable to each party.