Posts for Ticker ‘CSX’

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (BRCD, BNI, COH, CHK, CSX, HOG, KWK, MBT, NDAQ, SIRI)

These are this Thursday’s top early analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations from Wall Street research calls which may be moving shares of the underlying stocks:

Brocade Communications (NASDAQ: BRCD) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray; Cut to Hold at ThinkEquity; Cut to Hold at Lazard.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI) Cut to Underweight at Barclays.
Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) Started as Hold at KeyBanc.
Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) Started as Buy at Lazard.
CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) Raised to Equal-Weight at Barclays.
Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG) Started as Underweight at KeyBanc.
Quicksilver Resources Inc. (NYSE: KWK) Started as Buy at Lazard.
Mobile TeleSystems (NYSE: MBT) Raised to Buy at UBS.
NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ) Raised to Positive at Susquehanna.
SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) put on positive credit watch at S&P late yesterday during trading hours.

You can join our open email distribution list which goes out several times per week to be notified of key analyst calls, top early morning day trader alerts, along with news of IPO’s, key offerings, guru investor data on Buffett and others, key merger news, and more.

JON C. OGG

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (ARI, CSIQ, CSX, DDRX, HEV, INTC, NVDA, VCLK, VITC)

These are the top ten analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen from Wall Street research calls this Tuesday morning:

Apollo Commercial Real Estate (NYSE: ARI) Started as Overweight at Barclays; Started as Hold at Citigroup.
Canadian Solar (NASDAQ: CSIQ) Raised to Equal Weight at Barclays.
CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Diedrich Coffee (NASDAQ: DDRX) Cut to Hold at Roth Capital.
Ener1 (NASDAQ: HEV) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
Valueclick (NASDAQ: VCLK) Raised to Hold at Citigroup.
Vitacost.com (NASDAQ: VITC) Started as Buy at Needham; Started as Buy at Jefferies; Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.

You can join our open email distribution list to get updates on top analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s, secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.

JON C. OGG

The Unusual Suspects (GT, CTB, S, DT, LOPE, BBY, ORCL, PALM, GLD, CSX, UNP, RGR)

bull-and-bear-image2We have a whole host of stocks and sectors to watch throughout this coming week.  We have Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: GT) and Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: CTB) to watch on some tariff news.  Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) will likely be a key mover on Monday on potential merger reports.  Grand Canyon Education Inc. (NASDAQ: LOPE) is supposed to have a secondary offering early this week.  Earnings are coming from Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY), Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) and others.  $1,000.00 gold is going to be key for the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD).  CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX), Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP), and Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. (NYSE: RGR) are all likely suspects to watch for catch-up trading based on news outside of those companies.  More details are provided on each of these.  Stay tuned this week.
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Transports Seeing Mixed Show on FedEx Guidance Hike (FDX, UPS, UNP, CSX, YRCW, NSC, KSU, BNI, JBHT, CNW, LSTR)

FedEx Logo PicWe just noticed over at our volume spike alert service that FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) was already challenging 150% of its average volume and was triple volume what it normally has traded by this time of the morning. This was really ramping up rival United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) with a 4% gain, and was taking up lesser players in the space as well.  But interestingly enough, this is not doing anything to boost the trading volume in railroad stocks. Railroad giants like Union Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) and CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) are even lower on the day.  YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) is up significantly, and most truckers are up in sympathy.
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Top 10 Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AMED, BNI, CMCSA, CSX, DCP, FISV, GMR, HLS, STJ, TWC)

These are ten of the top pre-market analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiation calls we have seen from Wall Street early this Wednesday morning with close to two hours until the market opens:

Amedisys (AMED) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) Started as Outperform at Baird.
Comcast (CMCSA) Started as Overweight at JPMOrgan.
CSX (CSX) Started as Outperform at Baird.
Dyncorp (DCP) Started as Buy at SunTrust.
Fiserv (FISV) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
General Maritime Corp. (GMR) Raised to Outperform at FBR.
HealthSouth Corp. (HLS) Started as Outperform at Baird.
St. Jude Medical (STJ) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Time Warner Cable (TWC) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.

JON C. OGG

CSX Rises, But Shows Why Warren Buffett Is Worried on Rails (CSX, BNI, NSC, UNP, BRK-A)

Buffett ImageCSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) is showing exactly why Warren Buffett has been so pessimistic lately. Q2 2009 earnings were $308 million or $0.78 EPS.  This is down from $385 million, or $0.93 EPS, a year ago.  If you exclude discontinued operations related to the Greenbrier Resort, the earnings on a comparable basis were $0.72 EPS compared to $0.95 a year ago. While this is not as bad as some expected, there is a continued erosion as CSX said railroad freight volume is expected to fall by double-digit percentage rates in Q3.  The only comfort is that the target is set lower than the 21% decline seen in Q2.  As Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) are huge railroad investors (but not in CSX), and as he uses this rail freight traffic as a leading indicator, this has an impact on Buffett’s other railroad stocks of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI), Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC), and Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP).
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Buffett Adds Burlington Northern Shares Before Earnings (BNI, CSX, BRK-A)

Buffett_imageBurlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (NYSE: BNI) is set to report earnings today, and this comes just a day after competitor CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) earnings missed analyst expectations after a resort writedown took earnings down more than 30%.  What is most interesting here is that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) disclosed that purchased an additional 4.36 million shares of common stock for a total of $271.2 million on the open market. 

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Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (MDRX, BDX, ED, CRXL, CSX, RTN, SGR, SNN)

Money_stack_picThese are the early bird upgrades and positive analyst calls we have seen from Wall Street this Friday morning:

  • Allscripts-Misys (NASDAQ: MDRX) Raised to Outperform at William Blair.
  • Becton Dickinson (NYSE: BDX) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
  • Consolidated Edison (NYSE: ED) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
  • Crucell (NASDAQ: CRXL) Raised to Buy at RBS.
  • CSX (NYSE: CSX) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
  • Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
  • Shaw Group (NYSE: SGR) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • Smith & Nephew (NYSE: SNN) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.

Jon C. Ogg
January 9, 2009

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (BNI, CMP, CSX, MET, MXB, NI, PLL, XEL)

These are some of the top upgrades from Wall Street analysts we are seeing this Friday morning with about two hours to the open.

  • Burlington Northern (BNI) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
  • Compass Minerals (CMP) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
  • CSX Corp. (CSX) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
  • MetLife (MET) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
  • MSCI (MXB) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
  • NiSource (NI) Raised to Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
  • Pall Corp. (PLL) Raised to Buy at Merrill Lynch.
  • Xcel Energy (XEL) Raised to Buy at Merrill Lynch.

Jon C. Ogg
October 3, 2008

CSX Rides The Reading Railroad (CSX, UNP, BNI)

CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) is trading higher after the railCsx_logoroad operator increased its 2008 and long-term financial guidance.  It sees Fiscal-2008 earnings of $3.65 to $3.75 per share, which is above its prior $3.40 to $3.60 range and above the consensus of $3.57.  The railroad is also increasing its 2008 capital spending to approximately $1.75 billion and expects free cash flow before dividends of about $1 billion.

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Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (BIOF, CSX, CYH, PSYS, SLH, UHS)

These are some of the top analyst upgrades and positive calls we are seeing in trading early this Thursday morning:

  • Biofuel Energy (BIOF) Raised to Hold at Citigroup.
  • CSX Corp. (CSX) Raised to Buy at UBS.
  • Community Health Systems (CYH) Started as Outperform at Baird.
  • Psychiatric Solutions (PSYS) Started as Outperform at Baird.
  • Solera Holdings (SLH) Started as Buy at SunTrust.
  • Universal Health Services UHS) started as Outperform at Baird.

Jon C. Ogg
August 14, 2008

Top Analyst Upgrades (BWA, CLWR, CLF, CSX, NTLS, PFCB, VPHM)

These aren’t all of the upgrades or positive analyst calls we have seen this Wednesday, but these are some of the impact analyst calls we are seeing:

  • BorgWarner (NYSE: BWA) Raised to Outperform from Neutral at Baird.
  • Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) Started at Outperform at RBC Capital.
  • Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE: CLF) Started as Buy at KeyBanc.
  • CSX (NYSE: CSX) Raised to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
  • Ntelos Holdings (NASDAQ: NTLS) Started as Outperform at RBC Capital.
  • P.F. Chang’s (NASDAQ: PFCB) Raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.
  • ViroPharma Inc. (NASDAQ: VPHM) Raised to Overweight at Thomas Weisel.

Jon C. Ogg
July 16, 2008

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ANF, ASTI, ASMI, NILE, CHU, CSX, DPS, LLTC, QCOM, WOOF )

These are ten of the analyst calls we are focusing on this Tuesday morning in pre-market trading:

  • Abercrombie (NYSE: ANF) cut to Market Perform at FBR.
  • Ascent Solar (NASDAQ: ASTI) started as Neutral at Jefferies.
  • ASM Intl NV (NASDAQ: ASMI) started as Underperform at Jefferies.
  • Blue Nile (NASDAQ: NILE) Started as Underweight at Thomas Weisel.
  • China Unicom (NYSE: CHU) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  • CSX Corp (NYSE: CSX) cut to Neutral at UBS.
  • Dr Pepper Snapple (NYSE: DPS) started as Underweight at JP Morgan.
  • Linear Tech (NASDAQ: LLTC) cut to Neutral at UBS.
  • Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
  • VCA Antech (NASDAQ: WOOF) Started as Neutral at Piper Jaffray.

Jon C. Ogg
June 3, 2008

Kodak (EK): Inflation In a Tea Cup

CSX (CSX) is raising freight rates. So is Burlington Northern (BNI). Their diesel costs are up, and they need to pass them on to customers. Dow Chemical (DOW) said it would raise the prices of some of its products by 20%. The firm’s commodities and component costs have gone through the roof.

The latest American icon to say it would have to push up prices to customers is Eastman Kodak (EK). Unlike many other companies that want to recoup costs of goods, Kodak is financially weak and has customers who may simply walk away. According to The Wall Street Journal, the firm "will increase its prices on certain consumer products by as much as 20%, citing the soaring prices of raw materials and the rising cost of petroleum."

The people who buy cameras and printers may not have the scratch to upgrade or get the latest stuff from Kodak. Personal income is not spiking but inflation has gained steam.

The present commodity price boom is creating two great pools of companies. There are those who can pass many of their costs on. That would, in most cases, include chemical companies, oil firms, and some luxury goods operations.

But the "have nots" including the airlines and auto companies are likely to be joined by Kodak and others who don’t have strong balance sheets but do have customers stretched by the current environment.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Big Price Movers In S&P 500 For Q1 2008 (MSFT)(GOOG)(AAPL)(INTC)(C)(AIG)(VZ)

The largest losers among the big companies in the S&P 500 for the first quarter were:

Microsoft (MSFT) down 21.6%, Google (GOOG) down 36.7%, Apple (AAPL) down 27.8%, Intel (INTC) down 22%, Citigroup (C) down 29.3%, AIG (AIG) down 26.6%, Verizon (VZ) down 17.9%, Schering-Plough (SGP) down 22.1%, Merck (MRK) down 23.4%, Wachovia ((WB) down 31.7%, United Health (UNH) down 40.9%, Merrill Lynch (MER) down 26.3%, Marathon Oil (MRO) down 23.6%, EMC (EMC) down 22.8%, Amazon (AMZN) down 24.7%, Valero (VLO) down 30.1%, Fannie Mae (FNM) down 34.9%, CME Group (CME) down 30.1%, WellPoint (WLP) down 50.7%, Motorola (MOT) down 42.6%, Lehman (LEH) down 42.3%. Spint (S) down 51.1%, Best Buy (BBY) down 23%, Freddie Mac (FRE) down 25.3%, and NYSE Euronext (NYX) down 30.4%.

The largest winners among the big companies in the S&P 500 in the first quarter were:

Wal-Mart (WMT) up 9.7%, Devon Energy (DVN) up 17.3%, Yahoo! (YHOO) up 24.6%, Burlington Northern (BNI) up 10.5%, XTO Energy (XTO) up 18.2%, EOG Resources (EOG) up 33.2%, Calgene (CELG) up 28.6%, Chesapeake Energy (CHK) up 16.1%, CSX (CSX) up 28.6%, and Nucor (NUE) up 16.2%.

Douglas A. McIntyre

CSX Rides The Reading Railroad (CSX)

CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) has made several announcements this morning for shareholder initiatives. The railroad giant sees first quarter 2008 EPS at $0.74 to $0.77 EPS and put full-year EPS at $3.40 to $3.60 EPS.  First Call has estimates for Q1 at $0.63 EPS and fiscal 2008 at $3.05 EPS.  Its guidance through 2010 is now being put at 18% to 21% for compounded annual EPS growth, up from 15% to 17%.

It is also targeting its $3 Billion share buyback to be completed by year-end 2009, which is a new authorization of $2.4 Billion in addition to the $600 million available under its existing share buyback plan.  In total, this represents about 15% of the market cap. 

The railroad giant is also boosting its $0.18 dividend up to $0.20.

One interesting development is that CSX is also filing a lawsuit against The Children’s Investment Fund and 3G Capital Partners alleging violations of federal securities laws.  As a result of it trying to show the share swap violations and other initiatives that the two funds have engaged in, the company has rescheduled its annual shareholder meeting.

Jon C. Ogg
March 17, 2008

Icahn’s Top Holdings (APC, BEAS, BIIB, CSX, LEA, M, MOT, JCP, REGN, TIN, TWX, TWC, UNM, WMB)

Billionaire activist investor and financier Carl Icahn has released the total holdings in an SEC filing for the period end December 31, 2007 for  ICAHN CAPITAL, LP.

As Carl Icahn and his friends are multi-billionaires, we have eliminated the positions under $50 million since smaller postions are hardly worth his time and effort. The left column is the dollar amounts and the second number is the number of shares:

  • ANADARKO PETROLEUM (NYSE: APC) $970,600,000  14,775,468 shares
  • BEA SYSTEMS (NASDAQ: BEAS)  $654,176,000; 41,456,016 shares
  • BIOGEN IDEC (NASDAQ: BIIB)  $469,973,000; 8,256,723 shares
  • CSX CORP (NYSE: CSX) $128,422,000; 2,920,000
  • LEAR CORP (NYSE: LEA) 265,424,000; 9,595,954 shares
  • MACYS (NYSE: M)  $133,610,000; 5,164,660 shares
  • MOTOROLA (NYSE: MOT) $969,881,000; 60,466,400 shares
  • J.C.PENNEY (NYSE: JCP)  $183,274,000; 4,166,271 shares
  • REGENERON PHARMA (NASDAQ: REGN)  $60,568,000; 2,508,001 shares
  • TEMPLE INLAND (NYSE: TIN) $71,901,000; 3,448,488 shares
  • TIME WARNER CABLE (NYSE: TWC) $130,027,000; 4,711,128 shares
  • TIME WARNER INC (NYSE: TWX) $213,526,000; 12,933,159
  • UNUM GROUP (NYSE: UNM) $95,659,000; 4,020,960 shares
  • WILLIAMS COS INC (NYSE: WMB)  $173,201,000; 4,840,724 shares

Jon C. Ogg
February 14, 2008

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in any of the companies he covers.  Join the 24/7 Wall St. open email distribution list to hear of spin-offs, emerging IPO, break-up, reorganization, and other special situation stocks.

Backward & Forward, Cramer In 2007 To 2008

2007 was one volatile year and for now it appears that will be the norm for at least the start of 2008.  Everyone’s favorite market pundit or least liked pundit is obviously Jim Cramer.  If you love Cramer or can’t stand him it really doesn’t matter.  He signed a new multi-year deal with CNBC recently.  Here are some of his major calls this year that will still be referred to in 2008:

Here were Cramer’s TOP 9 STOCKS FOR 2007, with a call broken down for each one.  Borat would say HI FIVE on some and NOT SO NICE on others, as would be expected.  Cramer’s 14,582 year-end DJIA target…..Friday’s close was 13,365.87……although we did hit 14,279.96 on OCT11, 2007.  Cramer also gave a batch of price targets on most of theDJIA components:

Cramer’s Stock Picks FOR 5-YEARS OUT:

SOME LISTS: His list of recession proof stocks compared to ours.  We are updating our
Defensive Stocks For The First Half Of 2008" currently.  Cramer gave a huge list of companies he expects to benefit from the alternative energy traders (SGR, FWLT, BWA, OMG, FSLR, FTEK, WFR, TTEK, ZOLT, BP, SPWR, CY, CPST, ITRI)… Jim Cramer pondered which US companies China would want to acquire, about 3 months before sovereign funds started buying into US companies.  Cramer’s mortgage winners and losers…… Here were his MAJOR BULL MARKET STOCK PICKS(MHS, CVS, AGN, CELG, GENZ, CEPH, RIG, HAL, EMR, CAT, CMI, UTX, KO,PEP, CL, GS, SKS, VFC, UNP, CSX, BA), some of which are DJIAcomponents.  Cramer produced a "MUST OWN" list of stocks, many of whichare up significantly and some are down (WHR, BDK, ATI, BGC, HON, ASD, JCI, MDR, FWLT, CAT, TEX, DE, QCOM)

Cramer spent lots of time on International stocks that most US investors might not cover on their own.  He made a big call on Mercadolibre (MELI) (also BIDU, GOOG) with some emphasis on buying immediately, right before it made a huge run up.  Cramer’s Hidden Video Game Investment Perfect World (PWRD, ATVI, ERTS, VIA) was one he said could run more than 50% for 2008.  Cramer made 5 TOP CHINESE PICKS (CEO, CHL, SSW, FMCN, BIDU, GMR).  We’ll see in 2008 if any of his Canadian OIL TRUSTS get acquired in 2008 (BTE, CNE, PGH, PVX, PWE, AAV, GDI).  Cramer also went over his top picks from Europe for American investors (TOT, SI, ABB, PHG, BF)

ON TECHNOLOGY:  Cramer’s NEW HORSEMEN OF TECH…. will the list change in 2008???  Did Cramer Say $1,000.00 on Google, Or Is It $600.00? That was in May 2007.  Cramer Gave Monster Price targets to Baidu.com (BIDU, GOOG).. will these targets change in 2008? Cramer was very positive on all the GPS stocks,although we’d expect that Cramer will change his tune in 2008 now thatthe holiday madness is behind us (GRMN, UA, CROX, NVT, TRMB, SIRF).

Would it be fair not to include the Barron’s attack on Cramer from summer for those of you that criticize his every word?

ON WARREN BUFFETT…. Cramer noted that BROOKFIELD ASSET MANAGEMENT in Canada may be the next Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK/A) NYSE: BAM). Cramer reviewed 10 Warren Buffett stocks for analysis and then reviewed 10 More Warren Buffett stocks:

Will his buyout of ALCOA (AA) prediction come true in 2008??? Cramer gave a list of stocks that had bought back so much stock that they might be taking themselves private.

Join our free email distribution list for other Cramer calls or for updates we send out regarding IPO’s, spin-offs, restructuring, reorganization, activist investors and more.

Happy New Years from the 247WallSt.com team!

Jon C. Ogg
December 31, 2007

Union Pacific Warning, Warren Buffett Can Buy Rails Cheaper (UNP, CSX, BNI, NSC, CNI, BRK/A)

Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE:UNP) has just lowered earnings guidance for its fourth quarter 2007.  It said earnings will be reduced by approximately $0.20 per diluted share.  This warning is two-fold:

  • primarily reflects the rapidly rising diesel fuel costs and the corresponding lag in fuel surcharge recoveries;
  • it has been experiencing softer than anticipated volumes in recent weeks, which are largely related to recent weather events.

Union Pacific is now forecasting fourth quarter earnings in a range of $1.70 to $1.80 per diluted share, down from its prior forecast of $1.90 to $2.00 per diluted share. Full year 2007 earnings expectations are also impacted and are now in the range of $6.76 to $6.86 per diluted share.  UNP is quick to point that this represents more than 14% increase versus 2006 earnings of $5.91 per share.

Fourth quarter 2007 diesel fuel costs should average roughly $2.60 per gallon. This would be a 34% increase from last year’s fourth quarter level. It stated that diesel fuel costs averaged $2.43 per gallon in the month of October, increased to an average of $2.66 per gallon in November and are expected to be over $2.70 per gallon in December.  Fuel costs for the fourth quarter are now expected to be over $200 million higher than the fourth quarter a year ago. In November and December alone, fuel costs will be approximately $65 million higher than originally anticipated.

UNP notes that the fuel surcharges on these higher costs will not be recovered until 2008 as there is roughly a two month lag in the Company’s fuel surcharge programs between diesel fuel expense and surcharge recovery.  Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK/A) had been an aggressive railroad buyer in recent filings although it appears that he had lightened up on these in the recent notes as well. If he is still interested in buying railroad stocks they just got cheaper.

UNP shares are down over 5% at $121.98, down from a $129.43 close on Tuesday, and it has a 52-week trading range of $89.58 to $137.56.  As Union Pacific is the largest of the rails and a harbinger for transportation, you can see this impacting key rail stocks:

  • Burlington Northern Santa Fe C (NYSE: BNI) shares are down almost 2.5% at $81.70 with 52-week trading range $71.51 to $95.47.
  • Canadian National Railway Comp (NYSE: CNI) shares are down 1.4% at $47.65 with a 52-week trading range $41.57 to $58.49.
  • Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) shares are down almost 3% at $48.55 with a 52-week trading range $45.38 to $59.77.
  • CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) shares are down almost 2% at $42.85 with a 52-week trading range $33.50 to $51.88.

It’s pretty hard to imagine that trucking stocks will have that great of an open.  They hog diesel fuel and gasoline too.

Jon C. Ogg
December 19, 2007

Railroads: Short Sellers Versus Buffett & Gates (UNP, NSC, CP, BNI, CNI, CSX, KSU)

Since Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, plus many others now, have gone after more railroad holdings, we thought it would be interesting to see how short sellers are acting in the names.  Supposedly you can now make money betting against Warren Buffett these days, but that all depends on YOUR timing versus HIS.  If you think that Bill Gates’ Cascade investment vehicle doesn’t have some foresight into issues 3 to 6 months ahead of time, well I won’t say it.  So here is how the short selling looks in the railroads from April to May

STOCK (Ticker)                MAY07    APR07    Change
Union Pacific (UNP)        4.41M     3.91M      12.8%
Burlington North (BNI)    6.19M      5.8M         6.1%   
Canadian Nat’l (CNI)        1.79M    1.40M      28.2%
CSX Corp. (CSX)              29.27M   27.97M    4.6%
Canadian Pac. (CP)         1.30M    1.06M        22.2%

lower short interest….

Norfolk Southern (NSC)    5.47M    7.93M    -31%
Kansas City So. (KSU)      5.30M    6.43M    -17.6%

NSC was Buffett’s top holding in the sector, and CNI was Gates’ top holding in the rails.  Both BNI and UNP were Buffett’s other holdings in the sector.

Jon C. Ogg
May 22, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.