(The following appeared at SeekingAlpha.com on October 20.)
Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC) is expected to report Q3 earnings after market close Tuesday, Oct. 21, with a conference call scheduled for Wednesday, October 22 at 9:00 am ET.
Guidance
Analysts are looking for EPS of $1.21 on revenue of $2.76B. The consensus range is $1.11 to $1.26 for EPS, and $2.73B to $2.81B for revenue, according to First Call.
Analyst Views
Norfolk Southern reported a strong Q2, beating analyst estimates on EPS and revenue. Norfolk Southern was upgraded by BMO Capital and by UBS. BMO Capital upgraded the company to Outperform from Market Perform; the firm believes Norfolk Southern will be able to take share vs. trucks due to higher fuel costs. UBS upgraded the company to Buy from Neutral.
However, Norfolk Southern was downgrade by Stifel Nicolaus and Morgan Keegan. Stifel downgraded the company to Hold from Buy on September 2, based on valuation. Norfolk Southern was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform by Morgan Keegan on October 3, citing moderating 2009 pricing growth and flat volumes.