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Here's How Much You'd Have If You Invested $1000 in CSX a Decade Ago

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For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. This factor can impact your investment portfolio as well as help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in CSX (CSX - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to CSX for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

CSX's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at CSX's main business drivers.

CSX Corporation is one of United States’ leading transportation companies. The company, based in Jacksonville, Fl, offers rail-based freight transportation services like traditional rail service, transport of intermodal containers and trailers apart from rail-to- truck transfers.

CSX, incorporated in 1978 under Virginia law, offers customers access to a large and interconnected transportation network. The company's fiscal year coincides with the calendar year.

CSX Transportation is the company’s primary operating subsidiary. Through the subsidiary, the company provides an important link to the transportation supply chain through its rail network, spanning across approximately 19,500 route miles. CSXT also offers service to multiple production and distribution facilities apart from managing activities like real estate sales .

Through this vast network, the company offers services to major population centers in 23 states east of the Mississippi River, the District of Columbia and Ontario and Quebec in Canada. CSX owns multiple locomotives. Freight, switching and auxiliary units are present in the locomotive fleet. CSX also leases locomotives on a short-term basis.

CSX conducts its operations primarily through five business lines:

Merchandise (accounted for 60.2% of total revenue in 2021): The merchandise business consists of one million carloads per year of aggregates, which include crushed stone, sand and gravel, metal, phosphate, fertilizer, food, consumer (manufactured goods and appliances), agricultural, paper and chemical products.

Coal (14.3%): The segment delivers carloads of coal, coke and iron ore to electricity generating power plants, ocean, river and lake piers and terminals, steel makers apart from industrial plants.

Intermodal (16.3%): Through its network of approximately 30 terminals, Intermodal serves all the major markets east of the Mississippi River and transports, mainly manufactured consumer goods in containers, thereby providing customers truck-like service for longer shipments.

Trucking (3.3%): Introduced in third-quarter 2021, the segment consists of the operations of Quality Carriers, which was acquired in July 2021.

Other (5.9%): The segment, introduced in the second quarter of 2010, includes other revenues pertaining to Rail as well as Intermodal.

Bottom Line

Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of a few things: research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in CSX a decade ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in August 2012 would be worth $4,267.72, or a gain of 326.77%, as of August 3, 2022, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

In comparison, the S&P 500 gained 199.72% and the price of gold went up 6.44% over the same time frame.

Analysts are forecasting more upside for CSX too.

CSX is benefiting from higher export coal volumes, domestic intermodal shipments and favorable pricing. With the demand scenario expected to remain strong, despite the current market bloodbath, management anticipates double-digit growth in operating income and revenues for 2022 from 2021's reported levels. CSX's measures to reward its shareholders are encouraging as well. In February, CSX hiked its dividend 7.5%. However, supply-chain disturbances are hurting the company’s operations. Weakness in the merchandise segment due to lower automotive volumes is concerning. High costs, primarily due to escalating fuel expenses (up 102% in first-half 2022), pose a threat to CSX’s bottom line. CSX’s high capital expenditures are also worrisome. Due to these headwinds, shares of the company have lost 13.3% in the year-to-date period.

Shares have gained 12.77% over the past four weeks and there have been 8 higher earnings estimate revisions for fiscal 2022 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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