Citi Discusses Investor Meeting WIth Norfolk Sourthern

Citi Investment Research is out with a research report on Norfolk Southern

, as the company held an investor meeting. It has a Buy rating and a $80 price target on shares. In a note to clients, Citi writes, "Norfolk Southern hosted its investor meeting Wednesday in Altoona, PA, and consistent with its tradition, the company's presentations were a bit light on financial projections. That being said, Norfolk did note that it expects further margin improvement from current levels and highlighted productivity initiatives, particularly fuel efficiency and asset utilization, that it believes will drive progress. Similar to its eastern competitor CSX, Norfolk noted that volume growth was equally important to growing profitability going forward, and highlighted specific growth opportunities in its coal, intermodal, and manufacturing segments. While long-term guidance was missing from the presentation, Norfolk did note that it believes long-term capex should be in the range of 15% of revenues (a normalized number likely to be hit in 2015 or later due to higher near-term spending on coal cars, intermodal terminals, and PTC)." Shares of NSC lost 75 cents yesterday to close at $70.53, a loss of 1.05%.