Related stocks: Railroads, Line-Haul Operating
Data sourced from SEC EDGAR filings and third-party price providers. Scores, valuations, and metrics are algorithmic estimates. This is not investment advice. See our Terms and Methodology.
Related stocks: Railroads, Line-Haul Operating
Data sourced from SEC EDGAR filings and third-party price providers. Scores, valuations, and metrics are algorithmic estimates. This is not investment advice. See our Terms and Methodology.
Railroads, line-haul operating company · VA · FY ends Dec · Revenue $12.19B · 33.54% margin · $1.62B FCF
$340.16
+$2.10 (+0.62%)
EOD Jul 17, 2026
35.76% operating margin is above average. ROIC at 11.02%.
Revenue growth slowed to 0.5%, essentially flat. This is a business that needs a catalyst.
At 29x earnings, the current multiple leaves limited room for execution misses or growth deceleration. Net debt of $15.79B represents 7.3x FCF, leverage limits flexibility.
28.7x earnings, 47.3x FCF. Not cheap, the quality is already reflected in the price. Upside from here requires either margin expansion or growth re-acceleration, not just continuation.
Based on TTM earnings · Diluted shares
Profitability & Returns
Revenue (TTM)
$12.19B
▲ +0.5% YoY
Net Income (TTM)
$2.67B
▲ +9.6% YoY
Op. Margin
33.54%
▲ +2.2pp YoY
ROIC
10.31%
▲ +0.2pp YoY
Cash Flow & Balance Sheet
FCF (TTM)
$1.62B
▲ +29.1% YoY
Op. Cash Flow (TTM)
$3.75B
▲ +7.6% YoY
Net Debt
$15.76B
Cash & Equiv.
$1.34B
5Y CAGR: +4.5%
5Y CAGR: +0.1%
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At a P/E of 28.7 and a price-to-free-cash-flow of 47.3, Norfolk Southern (NSC) trades above a two-stage DCF intrinsic value of about $54.57 per share, so at $340.16 the stock looks overvalued (84.0% above estimated intrinsic value). A high multiple is not the same as overvalued: fast-growing, high-quality businesses can deserve a premium. See the general approach in how to tell if a stock is overvalued.
On quality, Norfolk Southern scores 28/100 on Intrinsiqq's quality scorecard (a lower-quality business on these measures), weighing growth, margins, returns on capital, share count, and balance-sheet strength. It currently yields about 1.6%; see dividend safety for coverage and history. All figures are computed from SEC filings; read the full methodology. This is analysis, not investment advice.
Intrinsiqq's two-stage DCF estimates an intrinsic value of about $54.57 per share for NSC, projecting its recent free cash flow forward with a growth rate that fades toward a long-run rate and discounting it back to today. Applying a 25% margin of safety gives a more conservative fair-value entry around $40.93. At today's $340.16, that puts the stock about 84.0% above estimated intrinsic value. The result is sensitive to the growth and discount-rate inputs, so it is best to run conservative, base and optimistic cases. You can adjust all of them yourself with the sliders on the DCF tab.
Norfolk Southern scores 28 out of 100 on Intrinsiqq's quality score, a weighted blend of 8 metrics each scored 0 to 100, which makes it a lower-quality business on these measures. Recent fundamentals include a 33.5% operating margin and a 10.3% return on invested capital. The score weighs revenue and free-cash-flow growth, operating margins, return on invested capital, share-count change, and balance-sheet strength, all computed from SEC filings, not opinion. Because valuation only means something relative to quality, the full metric-by-metric breakdown is on the quality scorecard.
Yes, Norfolk Southern pays a regular dividend of about $5.39 per share per year (typically in quarterly installments), a yield of roughly 1.6% at the current price. That is a payout ratio of about 45.4% of earnings, so the dividend is well covered. Norfolk Southern has grown the dividend at roughly 4.3% a year over the past few years. A low headline yield is not the same as a weak dividend: what matters is how well earnings and free cash flow cover the payout and whether it is growing, not the percentage alone. For NSC's full payout history, growth streak and dividend-safety score, see the dividends tab.
That depends on valuation and quality together, not either alone. NSC currently trades above its estimated intrinsic value and scores 28/100 on quality (lower-quality). It also yields about 1.6%. A cheap price is only a bargain if the business is durable, and a premium can be justified by genuine quality, so the two questions, "is it cheap?" and "is it good?", only make sense side by side. Read the valuation against the quality scorecard, run the DCF on your own assumptions, and decide for yourself. This is analysis from SEC filings, not investment advice.