UNP vs. NSC, CP, CSX, FIP, GE, UPS, FDX, ODFL, DAL, and WAB
Should you be buying Union Pacific stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Union Pacific include Norfolk Southern (NSC), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP), CSX (CSX), FTAI Infrastructure (FIP), General Electric (GE), United Parcel Service (UPS), FedEx (FDX), Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), Delta Air Lines (DAL), and Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies (WAB).
Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP) and Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC) are both large-cap transportation companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment and risk.
Union Pacific currently has a consensus target price of $259.61, suggesting a potential upside of 11.51%. Norfolk Southern has a consensus target price of $261.78, suggesting a potential upside of 16.45%. Given Norfolk Southern's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Norfolk Southern is more favorable than Union Pacific.
In the previous week, Norfolk Southern had 5 more articles in the media than Union Pacific. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for Norfolk Southern and 11 mentions for Union Pacific. Norfolk Southern's average media sentiment score of 0.88 beat Union Pacific's score of 0.66 indicating that Norfolk Southern is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Union Pacific pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Norfolk Southern pays an annual dividend of $5.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Union Pacific pays out 49.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Norfolk Southern pays out 87.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.
Union Pacific has higher revenue and earnings than Norfolk Southern. Union Pacific is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Norfolk Southern, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Union Pacific received 434 more outperform votes than Norfolk Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.21% of users gave Union Pacific an outperform vote while only 57.47% of users gave Norfolk Southern an outperform vote.
Union Pacific has a beta of 1.06, meaning that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Norfolk Southern has a beta of 1.3, meaning that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Union Pacific has a net margin of 26.52% compared to Norfolk Southern's net margin of 11.76%. Union Pacific's return on equity of 44.34% beat Norfolk Southern's return on equity.
80.4% of Union Pacific shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.1% of Norfolk Southern shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Union Pacific shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Norfolk Southern shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
Union Pacific beats Norfolk Southern on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UNP and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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