Too Much Rail News To Report -- January 21, 2015

Will start here, perhaps add more later.

CSX ($0.49): CSX reported fourth quarter earnings per share of $0.49, up 17% from $0.42 in the same period last year. This represents a new fourth quarter record for the Company. Revenue grew 5% in the quarter, to $3.2 billion, also a fourth quarter record, with broad based growth across nearly all of our markets, reflecting continued economic momentum.

MarketWatch: oil tankers may leave the trains, but it won't stop the railroad boom. 

Shale-oil tankers may be leaving the train, but that won’t dent a bull case for railroads as the best way to play industrials stocks amid plunging crude prices.

That’s what analysts at Credit Suisse wrote in a note Thursday, in which they also argued that for all the buzz around shipping crude by rail, railroads can still rely on other lines of business, such as transporting general merchandise. Moreover, capacity is tight, with or without oil.

The analysts had three top picks: Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd,  CSX Corp., and Union Pacific Corp. On average, there’s 20% upside for their stock prices in the next 12 months, they said.

Railroads have been a critical link for the boom in U.S. and Canadian oil production, getting to and from shale fields that are far beyond the reach of existing pipelines, and helping ease pipeline constraints in other areas. Railroads also transport sand used in hydraulic fracturing and carry natural-gas liquids.

In North Dakota, a top-producing oil state, rail accounts for more than half of crude transportation. Earlier this week, state officials said North Dakota’s oil production rose to 1.19 million barrels a day in November, a record, even as energy companies drilled fewer wells and operated fewer rigs in the state due to the lower oil prices.

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