(The following appeared at SeekingAlpha.com on July 15.)
NEW YORK — Rail operator CSX Corporation (CSX) will report its second quarter financial results on Tuesday after the close of the stock market. Art Hatfield, an analyst with Morgan Keegan, is forecasting that CSX will meet Wall Street’s estimates. He thinks the impact of high fuel costs will be offset by continuing improvements in the company’s operational efficiencies.
CSX has had quite a quarter. Despite a 37+% rise in the shares year to date, 12% this quarter in which the stock market in general has been decimated, and the stock trading near this year’s highs, the company has attracted the ire of a shareholder group comprised of The Children’s Investment Fund [TCI] and 3G Capital Partners.
The shareholder group is claiming that CSX is underperforming and could achieve $2.2 billion in annual productivity gains within five years. The group also says profits at CSX could quadruple in five years compared with company forecasts of a doubling of profits in that period. Needless to say, CSX begs to differ.
For the second quarter, the 11 analysts following the company, expect consensus earnings of 90 cents a share. This represents a 26.7% increase over the same period a year ago. For the full year, Wall Street is expecting $3.58.
The company itself did not issue a second quarter forecast, but hinted that costs from fighting the shareholder group will negatively impact its numbers. CSX does have a good history of beating estimates, and has done so the last four quarter.