Trains.com

Economic downturn likely to impact CSX earnings

2125 views
33 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    August 2004
  • From: The 17th hole at TPC
  • 2,283 posts
Posted by n012944 on Thursday, July 11, 2019 4:17 PM

CMStPnP

I used to be a CSX stock holder about 3-4 years ago and just got tired of the excuses and the declining performance.   

 

Note to self, don't take stock advice from CMStPnP .  3 years ago CSX stock closed at $27 a share.   Today it closed out at $78.40.  

CMStPnP

Now I hear they are trying PSR

You really don't pay much attention to the railroad industry, do you?

An "expensive model collector"

  • Member since
    June 2019
  • 313 posts
Posted by Juniata Man on Thursday, July 11, 2019 3:26 PM

Over the past five years; CSX essentially has had no meaningful sales presence.  Except for contract renewals; we went a 24 month period and never saw or heard from the individual who was supposed to be calling on us.  And during that period of time I moved every bit of our non-captive traffic from CSX to NS and still he didn’t reach out to understand what was behind our drop in volume with them.

Bill Stephens had a story over on Newswire a few months ago quoting a CSX executive that they had plans to start expanding their sales force but; that was contradictory to what I was told by one of their senior people back in February when I asked if they planned to start expanding the sales team.  The response I got was “no - why should we?”

From my perspective as a chemical customer; CSX’s marketing strategy didn’t change much from Michael Ward to Hunter or Jim Foote.  The plan seems to be no more visionary than continuing to jack rates on a shrinking customer base.

  • Member since
    June 2009
  • From: Dallas, TX
  • 6,952 posts
Posted by CMStPnP on Thursday, July 11, 2019 3:00 PM

Juniata Man
The mystery to me is that more Wall Street analysts haven’t picked up on the continuing erosion in freight volumes.  Generally speaking - freight doesn’t lie.

They focus on earnings which drives stock prices higher.    Unless the fall in volume is very significant.    In the case of CSX, their management sucks royally and has for like the last decade or so.   So when CSX volumes decline it might have more of an impact on the stock.    UP stock has been wavering but is increasing now on expectation of higher earnings numbers about to be released this next quarter.

I used to be a CSX stock holder about 3-4 years ago and just got tired of the excuses and the declining performance.   Now I hear they are trying PSR, I have my doubts they will ever fully implement it and even worse it will be a distraction from attracting other sources of traffic.    UP is just now reaping some cost cutting benefits so it's earnings are expected to rise this quarter.   UP is pretty agressive with customer retention and with marketing based on what I saw when I was at General Motors.   Maybe just their automotive traffic but what I observed of the UP sales team, really impressed me compared to the other railroads.

  • Member since
    June 2019
  • 313 posts
Posted by Juniata Man on Thursday, July 11, 2019 1:47 PM

 Not really a surprise if one has been following the weekly AAR volume numbers reported over on Newswire.

The mystery to me is that more Wall Street analysts haven’t picked up on the continuing erosion in freight volumes.  Generally speaking - freight doesn’t lie.

  • Member since
    September 2017
  • 5,636 posts
Economic downturn likely to impact CSX earnings
Posted by charlie hebdo on Thursday, July 11, 2019 1:28 PM

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4274272-csx-going-sleepless-earnings

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy