Overweight Rail stocks in general, and Union Pacific (UNP) in particular, got a major lift yesterday when UNP announced a plan to implement the principles of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) in its push to improve…

Overweight The Cass Freight Expenditures Index, a barometer of the total amount spent on freight, recorded an all-time high reading in the latest monthly report, rising by an astonishing 17.3% year-over-year on already firm comparable…

Overweight CSX Corp led off the S&P railroads index in reporting results for the first quarter of 2018 yesterday; the markets were not disappointed and the stock jumped substantially higher. Most notably, the company's…

Overweight Railroad stocks have recently seen a spike in forward EPS which has eliminated the valuation premium and now the rails are trading on par with the SPX on a forward P/E basis (second panel). The track is now clear and more…

Highlights Portfolio Strategy Synchronized global growth, a soft U.S. dollar, our resurgent Boom/Bust Indicator and avoidance of a Chinese economic hard landing, are all signaling that it still pays to overweight cyclicals at the…

Overweight Last week saw some sad news as Hunter Harrison, the CEO of CSX and legendary railroad captain, passed away. While we are overweight the S&P railroads index, we did not upgrade when Mr. Harrison joined CSX and we will not…

Earlier this week, CSX led off railroad Q3 earnings, managing to beat expectations while overcoming hurricanes and derailments. Of particular note was solid pricing gains despite somewhat lagging domestic inflation and CSX-specific…

When Hunter Harrison took over the reins at CSX, the expectation was a repetition of his slashing of costs with the deployment of his Precision Scheduled Railroading. In his first full quarter as CEO, he appears to have done just that.…

Overweight We booked gains on the rails in late-January of this year as growth worries mounted; since then, relative performance has been in consolidation mode. Now is the time to re-board the rails as these worries have largely…

Highlights Portfolio Strategy Reviving global trade and an enticing domestic operating backdrop mean that, after a 5-month hiatus, it is once again time to ride the rails. Even a modest reacceleration in global export volumes and…