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CSX Corporation Stock Price: Quote, Forecast, Splits & News (CSX)

Perplexity Finance

Company Profile

CSX Corporation Price & Performance (CSX)

Stock Performance

Updated Apr 17, 8:00 PM UTC

CSX Corporation

$27.68USD

++$0.33 (+1.21%)

After Hours

+$0.049 (+0.18%)

Open

$27.32

Year High

$37.10

P/E Ratio

16.5

Low

$27.27

Year Low

$26.22

Volume

20.97M

High

$28.02

Market Cap

$52.44B

Dividend Yield

1.77%

Latest News

Earnings Miss at CSX Sparks Analyst Downgrades and Cautious Outlook
today
CSX Corporation's first-quarter 2025 results fell short of analyst expectations, with earnings per share at $0.34 and revenue dropping 7% year-over-year. Persistent network disruptions and severe weather drove up costs, prompting Bernstein to lower its price target to $31 and maintain a cautious Market Perform rating. Analysts urge patience amid ongoing operational challenges.123
Operational Hurdles Weigh on CSX, but Growth Initiatives Offer Long-Term Potential
today
CSX reported a 22% decline in operating income and a 7% drop in revenue for Q1 2025, citing major infrastructure projects and adverse weather as key factors. Despite short-term headwinds, BMO Capital remains optimistic, highlighting CSX's robust growth pipeline and potential benefits from industrial near-shoring, maintaining an Outperform rating with a $35 price target.456
Benchmark Remains Bullish on CSX Despite Q1 Setbacks and Higher Expenses
Apr 17, 2025
Benchmark analysts reaffirmed their Buy rating and $35 price target for CSX, despite the company missing earnings estimates due to infrastructure disruptions and weather-related costs. CSX is increasing its locomotive count and collaborating with customers to restore network balance, though a full recovery may take several quarters.783

What's Happening

Peers

Earnings

Report Date

Apr 16, 2025

Reported Revenue

3.4B

Avg 1d Change

3.36%

Report Period

Q1 2025

Reported EPS

0.34

Implied Move 1d

3.5%

Transcript

10m 19s

Thank you, Krista. Hello, and good afternoon, everyone. We're very pleased to have you join our first quarter conference call. Joining me from the leadership team are Joe Hendricks, President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Corey, EVP and Chief Operating Officer Kevin Boone, EVP and Chief Commercial Officer and Sean Pelkey, EVP and Chief Financial Officer. In the presentation accompanying this call, which is available on our website, you will find slides with our forward looking disclosures and our non GAAP disclosures for your review. With that, it's now my pleasure to introduce Mr. Joe Hendricks. Thank you, Matthew, and hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our first quarter call. Since I came to CSX, we have been clear about our commitment to leave with service. Consistent, reliable, excellent service is what share that strengthens our relationship with customers expands our markets, ultimately drives proper growth. Now fulfill that commitment this quarter. The start of the year typically brings operational challenges that we manage the network through the worst of winter weather. That these challenges will be more difficult this year because of the constraints associated with our two major infrastructure projects the Howard Street tunnel and the Blue Ridge subdivision rebuild.

11m 27s

Unfortunately, our performance fell short of our expectations. As a result, we left good business on the table. Introduced our revenues and our inefficiencies met, we incurred more expense. We take full accountability for our performance this quarter and we are not standing still. Team is aligned. Our expectations are clear. And we're taking actions to stabilize our operations, improve efficiency, and enhance coordination across the entire one CSX team. All that said, want to reiterate the underlying strengths of our business. This is still the same great network one CSX team. Our customer relationships are strong, and the fundamentals of our strategy are sound. I want to thank our employees for their resilience our investors for their continued support as we move forward with urgency and clarity. Now let's go over some highlights. Let's start with Slide one, we feature some of the key results from our first quarter. Total volume decreased 1% compared to last year, but we did see intermodal volumes increased 2% on the quarter as we saw an uptick in port traffic. Total revenue was $3,400,000,000 for the quarter, down 7% from the same period last year. As we anticipated, much of this decline was due to the commodity effects of lower benchmark coal prices and reduced fuel surcharge.

12m 46s

Earnings per share decreased by 24% reflecting the effects of our margin from reduced revenues and our challenged network performance. We know that trust is earned through consistency. One quarter doesn't define us, Defined us is how we respond, how we learn, and how we come back stronger. That is our focus. We're committed to delivering better results and most importantly, to executing in the quarters ahead. Now I will turn the call over to Mike provide details around our operational performance. Thank you, Joe. Thanks to all of you for taking the time to participate today. As Joe highlighted in his opening remarks, this was a difficult quarter for the CSX network and the team. We've talked about how we have two major infrastructure rebuilds in progress that are causing us to reorganize and reroute a significant amount of our daily traffic. As a result, we were hit by severe weather and faced other tough railroading challenges it's become more complicated for us to recover and it's just taking us longer to stabilize our operations. These effects are clear in our service metrics as all of you have noticed. Let me say this as firmly as I can, improving the fluidity of the network is essential in order to deliver on our promises to our customers, and we are committed to getting this done.

13m 58s

We expect our performance to improve from first quarter even as we manage the ongoing infrastructure projects. I'll talk more in a moment about what steps we're taking, but let's first discuss safety results for the quarter. The first quarter saw a third straight sequential decline in our FRA injury rate, which also brought us lower on a year over year basis. The continued education and mentorship programs that we've put in place having a measurable effect helping our employees understand how to reduce their risk exposure, every day that they're on the job. I'm pleased that our FRA train accident rate also declined sequentially and improved year over year. Our team sees this as an encouraging affirmation our Safe CSX program is taking hold and driving positive results. We will continue our work to build a safety focused culture here at CSX, always with the goal of everyone returning home safe and sound after every day. Let's move to the next slide. At the top of this page, you'll see metrics reflecting our network fluidity. After working through the storms in the second half of twenty twenty four, our velocity was affected early in the first quarter of twenty twenty five, after closing the Baltimore Tunnel, and it continued to be challenged as we manage through the after effects of harsh winter weather.

15m 9s

The well demonstrated a similar unfavorable trend over the last several weeks, as yard congestion persisted, making it difficult for trains to depart on schedule. We're working hard to address the increase in cars online as having excess inventory has slowed the network. With particular flooding on our Southwest and Midwest regions Nashville and Cincinnati in particular, we have much to do in this regard. The charts on the bottom show important customer facing metrics. Our intermodal business is highly service sensitive. We have get this right to stay competitive in this market. As this chart shows, our intermodal trip plan compliance rebounded nicely in the first quarter, after the hurricane related disruptions that hit last fall. The team has worked hard to keep our terminals fluid and minimize the amount of time to rate drayage drivers are waiting to drop off or pick up boxes. We're encouraged by this result we didn't do nearly as well with carload TPC which was negatively impacted from the quarter's fluidity constraints. This is a primary area of attention for the team We have to deliver here in order to support our current merchandise business and the substantial amount of new business that Kevin and his team won and expect to win going forward.

16m 18s

Finally, our CSD or first mile last mile measure shows fairly steady performance but we know that for our customers, every percentage point represents important freight they've entrusted to CSX. So we understand where we are, and we are certainly committed to getting back to where we need to be. Top to bottom, our team is focused on speeding our operations back up, and rebuilding the positive momentum that comes from a fluid balanced network. We know we're not going to get back to our true potential until we get these major projects completed, but we are doing the hard work to drive incremental improvement step by step as we go through the year. The first things we're doing is to get the resources in place that will enable us to run a consistent operating plan even with the two major closures to work around. We're bringing online a modest number of locomotives to help get the network in balance and reduce train delay. This is scheduled railroad. When trains leave on schedule, everything else is able to fall in place. We're also taking steps drive our asset utilization. Our field leaders are connecting with our customers to identify and flush cars off our network.

17m 20s

As cars accumulated, network fluidity declined, so we're working closely with our customers and taking immediate action to get these levels back to where they need to be. Finally, we're making sure that everyone in this organization acts according to the priority that we at CSX place in delivering customer service. There's no single measure for the railroad that accounts for everything, But for years, TPC has served us as a very good guide to effective statistics. When we miss, we hold ourselves accountable find a solution, and make it right with our customers. We have a lot of work to do, but remember this, we have the same people and the same assets that we had a year ago, and we take a lot of pride knowing how to apply the core principles of an effective schedule realm. On top of that, we're adding improved tools such as the real time operations portal, system that we previewed at our investor day. Hundreds of railroaders across the network use RTOP every day to strengthen communication, and support faster, more effective decision making. The bottom line is that we're aligned across the team, and we're going to deliver for our customers and our shareholders.

18m 19s

Shareholders. With that, I'll turn it over to you, Kevin. All right. Thank you, Mike. Right now, CSX and our customers are navigating elevated levels of macro uncertainty. Clearly, there's an added market volatility and global trade policy is shifting day to day. We're staying close to our customers to understand the changing landscape partnering to ensure supply chains remain resilient and efficient. As well as looking for opportunities to grow together including investments in US manufacturing. Year to date, market demand has remained relatively stable. While some areas are clearly stronger than others, we have not seen any major negative inflections. That said, we are unsatisfied. The disruptions we faced across the network resulted in missed opportunities in some of our key end markets markets. As you've heard, our entire team is 100% engaged. And we have confidence that we will show improvement as the year progresses. As an example of our commitment, I want to quickly highlight the CSX's TDSI automotive terminal team set a record with four terminals winning the auto industry's premier awards for origin and destination operations as recognized by the AAR. We are incredibly proud of our TDSI team and how they represent service excellence here at CSX.

19m 35s

Now let's turn to the slides. Starting with our merchandise business as shown on slide six, in total for the first quarter both revenue and volume declined 2%. RPU increased 1% year over year as higher core pricing gains offset lower fuel surcharge and the effects of negative mix. Looking across the different end markets, fertilizer volume was up 2% compared to last year benefiting from modest improvement in short haul Bone Valley shipments but revenue was flat as RPU was affected by this mix shift.

20m 6s

Market demand was strong for Ag and Food but operational challenges limited our ability to meet this demand. Reducing our shipments compared to the market opportunity. Minerals volume was lower by 1% as weather impacted aggregate shipments. But underlying construction activity remained robust. Cement volume was favorable over the quarter supported by the ramp up of new production which contributed to favorable RPU mix and helped lift revenues by 4% for the quarter. Chemicals revenue was up 1% against a 1% decline in volume. We saw positive demand in plastics and energy related areas such as propane and LPGs but cold weather had an impact on asphalt shipments. Forged products volume declined 4% reflecting an uncertain building products environment when considering interest rates and changing trading policies. Sales and equipment continue to be sluggish with volume down 7% for the quarter. Automotive production was slow to start the year and though we saw improvements in March. Volume and revenue declined 78% respectively. As we look to the second quarter and the rest of the year we're closely watching the daily changes in trade and tariff policy. As I said before, based on what we observed from our merchandise customers now, demand across merchandise is relatively steady.

21m 27s

There are even some encouraging recent signs with a good seasonal pickup in aggregates strong end market demand in some of our ag markets, and some early favorable effects from tariffs steel prices have improved. If markets hold, we see opportunities to capitalize on improved network performance. Allowing us to capture and fulfill more of the demand in some of our key markets. Now let's turn to Slide seven. To go over the coal business. Coal revenue declined 27% on 9% lower volume as the team navigated lower export prices. Producer issues and operational challenges in the quarter. All in coal RPU declined 20% year over year and fell 4% sequentially. Slightly more than the 3% decline that we anticipated last quarter. We saw year over year declines in both our export and domestic businesses. Export tonnage declined by 12% partially driven by the impacts of two significant temporary mine outages. While domestic tonnage was lower by 4%, we did see positive demand trends through the quarter. Utility demand has been supported by higher natural gas prices and we see positive signals from some of our key customers for increased demand into the summer and beyond. Domestic shipments to steel mills were also down year over year reflecting soft conditions in the metals market to start the year.

22m 49s

For pricing, the Australian benchmark averaged 100 and hundred and $85 per ton over the first quarter and currently sits around that level. On a lag basis, this would be a modest headwind to RPU in the second quarter although we could see a slight positive yield offset we're able to increase our deliveries to the southern utility customers. Turning to slide eight. To review the intermodal business.

23m 15s

In this quarter, revenue was down 3% despite a 2% increase in volume RPU was lower by 5% with a 3% impact due to lower fuel surcharge and the remainder largely due to stronger international shipments. The volume growth for the quarter was driven by international activity, as we saw positive trends in container import flows sourced from our global partners. While some of this may have been due to a moderate pull forward ahead of anticipated tariffs, we do not see any real step change in the trend line until we approach the March. Domestic was effectively flat with grain in our rail asset shipments and new initiatives offsetting mixed results among some of our other channel partners. Again, we're encouraged by what we've seen over the quarter but visibility is low into the rest of the year. The trucking market has not inflected but does not seem to be past the bottom. But does seem to be past the bottom which is moderately favorable for the intermodal overall. Finally, let's turn to slide nine for an update on industrial development at CSX. CSX. It's been very encouraging to see how our overall program has continued to progress.

24m 23s

As you've heard us say at recent conferences, inbound calls to our team remain at very high levels And our total pipeline of projects continues to grow. Reaching nearly 600 by quarter end, Even better one quarter of these projects are already under contract or nearing the final site selection. Activity within this pipeline continues to move forward. With 24 new facilities going live on our network over the first quarter These new plants and expansions will ramp up over the next few years contributing to our positive outlook on growth. We expect to keep this momentum up through the rest of the year with up to 50 additional facilities scheduled to start service over the next nine months. We remain confident that as the program continues to mature, and accelerate we are on track towards realizing the volume growth path we outlined at the November Investor Day. We remain very excited about this unique growth opportunity and we'll continue our efforts to attract more and more customers who will benefit from growing their business on the CSX network. With that, let me turn it over to Sean.

25m 29s

Thank you, Kevin, and good afternoon.

25m 31s

Looking at first quarter results, revenue fell by 7% or $258,000,000 from a 1% drop in volume as well as lower export coal benchmark prices lower fuel recovery and declines in other revenue and trucking. Expenses increased by 2%, and I'll discuss the line item details on the next slide. Interest and other expense was $14,000,000 higher compared to the prior year. And we expect this amount to step up slightly following our debt issuance in March. Income tax expense fell by $76,000,000 on lower pretax earnings. As a result, earnings per share decreased by point $11 Declines in export coal benchmarks and net fuel prices drove a point $4 headwind to EPS. We expect a similar commodity price headwind in the second quarter, which should ease throughout the back half of the year. Going into the year, we knew that Q1 would represent an earnings trough both on a year over year and an absolute basis. Then difficult operating conditions faced during the quarter led us to miss our own expectations for both revenue and expense. Despite new challenges from storms and flooding early in the second quarter, our team of railroaders is working tirelessly to clear congestion, and deliver the service product our customers deserve.

26m 50s

Which will drive revenue and expense benefits moving through the year. Let's now turn to the next slide and take a closer look at expense.

27m

Total first quarter expense increased by 2% or $38,000,000 This includes around $45,000,000 of additional costs related to network disruption congestion and severe winter weather.

27m 13s

These headwinds, plus the impact of inflation, were partly offset by savings from lower fuel prices. Turning to the individual line items, labor and fringe was up 16,000,000 primarily due to inflation. Headcount has remained stable over the last year and we expect it to be about flat through the year. Purchase services and other expense increased by $54,000,000 About half of this increase was tied to network disruptions and weather, with inflation and other items driving the remainder. Depreciation was up $15,000,000 due to a larger asset base.

27m 49s

Fuel cost decreased 50,000,000 driven by a lower gallon price and savings from efficiency and lower volume. Gallons per GTM has now improved on a year over year basis for five consecutive quarters driving over $50,000,000 in cumulative savings over that period.

28m 6s

Finally, equipment and rents increased by $3,000,000 Now turning to cash flow and distributions on slide 13. Investing for the safety, reliability and long term growth of our railroad continues to be our first priority use.

28m 20s

Of capital.

28m 21s

Q1 property additions were higher, including $133,000,000 of spending towards the rebuild project on our Blue Ridge subdivision. For the full year, our expectations are unchanged with non Blu ray spending roughly flat to 2024 and the total Blue Ridge rebuild expected to exceed $400,000,000 before insurance recoveries.

28m 43s

Free cash flow was stable in the first quarter as lower earnings were offset by cycling a previously postponed tax payment in the prior year. Now as a reminder, cash outflows in the second quarter will include a roughly $425,000,000 tax payment that was postponed from 2024 due to hurricane related tax relief.

29m 4s

After fully funding capital investments, we are committed to returning cash to shareholders.

29m 9s

Including nearly $1,000,000,000 in the first quarter. Our approach will remain balanced and opportunistic. Factoring in an attractive current share valuation, while closely monitoring shifts in demand for our services, and the broader economic climate. With that, let me turn it back to Joe for his closing remarks.

29m 28s

Okay. Thank you, Sean.

29m 30s

Now we will conclude our remarks by walking through our updated guidance for the full year 2025.

29m 36s

First, we continue to expect overall volume growth for the full year. As Kevin said, demand remains fairly stable. But the near term effects of rapidly changing trade and tariff policies are uncertain. Which makes it difficult to project a reasonable range.

29m 50s

That said, we remain very well positioned to facilitate and benefit from the continued long term trend toward expansion of U. S. Manufacturing capacity. We have called out in the past, our revenue will reflect the challenges of lower commodity prices and changes in mix. So the year over year impact of lower export coal benchmark should be smaller than what we reported in the first quarter. As Sean highlighted, we expect first quarter to a trough for probability for this year. As we improve the fluidity of our network as we continue to drive a greater efficiency and we deliver labor productivity we should see sequential improvement. Our CapEx forecast is unchanged as you heard from Sean And as you've seen this past quarter, a balance opportunistic approach to capital returns also remains in place. To conclude, while this quarter did not meet our expectations, I appreciate the commitment focus, and the efforts of our entire One CSX team. That said, we recognize that the effort must translate into better outcomes. And that is where our attention is right now. We're fully committed to running a safer, faster, and more reliable railroad. And we know that doing so consistently is the path delivering the long term profitable growth we expect of ourselves.

31m 3s

Thanks to all of your interest in our company. Matthew, we're ready to take questions. Thank you, Joe. We'll now proceed to the question and answer. Session. Now to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to participate in the time that we have we ask you to please limit yourselves to one and only one question. [indiscernible] We're ready to start the process.

31m 28s

Your first question comes from the line of Tom Wadewitz with UBS. Please go ahead.

31m 36s

Yes, good afternoon.

31m 38s

Wanted to see if you could I guess, I don't know, break down into maybe high level, but kind of buckets of the operational challenges You obviously making this strategic move with Howard Street Tunnel and the investment there and that's in effect. Is that Is that half of the challenge on the operating side?

31m 58s

Or how do you view that? Was that a greater impact And then you talked about weather, I know how big that is. Guess the other piece would seem to be, I don't know if there's some that's from like kind of longer train strategy that maybe there's noise related to that or or maybe just not as good an execution. But wanted to see if you could kind of attribute a little bit more and then also give a sense of how quickly maybe you can see improvement in the operating performance Thank you.

32m 28s

Thank you for the question Tom. Look, got no excuses for where we are. What we're dealing with are the results of significant compounding events basically that have built over several months. You know, right up to last week's flooding and line closure of one of our most critical lines, So what we're doing is really focusing on a series of things, and it's, first of all, reducing the cars online. And that's what's accumulated through all these these events. And there was, six of them in there every month coming up to this point. We're working really close with our customers to identify, first of all, the excess cars in our serving yards, and our active inventory, and then we're working with them where we can to provide extra service to work these cars off. And, also, providing enough service so they understand and and can reduce their pipelines to help us create the fluidity we need. Lastly, you know, we we always have embargoes as an option, but that's not really our preferred, preferred move. The next thing is we're adding locomotives into areas that we know we're congested, and we need that ability to be flexible. To be able to move you know, the traffic that we have.

33m 32s

And we're also placing additional mechanical folks out in the field to to reduce the amount of time to cycle back locomotives that go to major shops. In terms of our crews, we're transferring employees from other jurisdictions as they become available. Into these affected terminals. We're temporarily adjusting our planned capital track and structures program to reduce activity in those affected areas. That'll allow us again to provide more flexibility or more capacity. And to get back really, Tom, again, I just have no excuses to where we are other than a buildup of a series of significant events that really took away the capacity that we had planned once we took down the Howard Street Tunnel. If you remember, it's about 17, 18 trains each way prior to that with the Blue Ridge gone. We've been affected severely in our other two westernmost routes. And that's what we're working through. So it's not an effect of any plan we had in terms of long trains or anything else. This is just a series of events that we have got to work through and that's what the team is absolutely committed to. And we will improve through this quarter and and our goal is to get to the summer where we see you know, normal seasonality of some traffic tapering off, whether it's auto or ag, to allow us to fully reset ourselves into q three.

34m 47s

But it's gonna take gonna take the time and definitely, it's gonna get the effort from everybody from me on down. Hope that answers you.

34m 55s

Your next question comes from the line of Brandon Oglenski with Barclays. Please go ahead.

35m 2s

Hey, good afternoon, and thank you for taking the question. Mike, maybe if we follow-up there. So it sounds like this is going to take maybe longer than a quarter to resolve and you might need to see lower levels of demand to push through here. But I guess thinking about this from a margin perspective and sorry, maybe the the question is more for Sean. But normally you see like a 400 basis point improvement from 1Q to 2Q operating ratio or operating margin however you want to look at it. Is that on the table here? Or with these resources maybe taking longer time to recover, is that kind of off the table at this point?

35m 39s

Hey, Brandon. Thanks for the question. You know, I think Q1 versus Q2 typically Q2 is always better, right? The magnitude each year is a little bit different depending on how challenging the winter was in q one and other factors that go through there. Our expectation is that clearly q two results are gonna be better than q one this year.

36m

You know, I I wanna clarify one thing, which is, you know, Mike talked about putting a couple of resources here and there. We're we're really not adding cost. These are very small things. That, at the end of the day, when we run more fluid, we actually save cost. It's cheaper.

36m 16s

Right? And and not only that, you know, we wanted to make it clear that there's a revenue opportunity there as well. There's demand that we weren't able to meet in q one. That as operations begin to improve, we're gonna be able to go get those opportunities assuming that the demand environment remains stable. So those things will help. And, you know, I think the pace of margin improvement and operating income improvement from q one to Q2 will largely depend on that macro environment as well as the pace of improvement that you see in in operations, which will translate to cost, but also, and arguably more importantly, to the revenue side of the equation.

36m 56s

Your next question comes from the line of John Chappell with ISI. Please go ahead.

37m 3s

Thank you. Sean, I'm stick to that topic a little bit here. I mean, in Investor Day and in January, you laid out a bunch of know, one off specific items for this year. That 45,000,000 that you laid out in slide 12, is that all incremental? To what you'd identified in January? And is that all ring fenced to one queue so we know what an appropriate starting point is for two queue? Or, I guess, is there some overrun? And, you know, Mike just mentioned another flooding situation last week. So just again trying to figure out how much of this is incremental to the already one off things and how we think about two q starting going forward?

37m 44s

Sure. Thanks, John. The the 350,000,000, the biggest part of that is the commodity price headwind. Of about $300,000,000 We still think that's a good number for the year. Know, met coal prices came down a little bit over the course of q one, hopefully found a bottom here. We'll see a big impact again year over year in Q2, probably pretty similar to what we saw in Q1 from the commodity price perspective. When it comes to the cost side, that $45,000,000 that we called out that includes the 10,000,000 a month. That we expected, due to reroute costs around both the Howard Street Tunnel and the Blue Ridge. You have to remember in the first quarter, we had two months of Howard Street reroute costs with that project beginning February 1. So call it 20 to $25,000,000 of reroute costs and then another 20 to $25,000,000 of you know, weather, congestion, you know, lack of fluidity. That's the opportunity for us. Going from q one to q two. Don't think you're gonna see that whole 20 to 25,000,000 come out. Particularly given some of the challenges we've had to start the quarter, but you'll see it improve as we continue on in the next couple of months And, again, know, don't forget, I I think there's a a sizable revenue opportunity for us as well as things get fluid.

39m 5s

Your next question comes from the line of Ari Rosa with Citigroup. Please go ahead.

39m 14s

Great. Good afternoon. So you mentioned some of the lost customer contracts. I was just hoping maybe you could quantify that.

39m 21s

And then either Joe or Kevin, if you could talk about kind of where customer conversations are on the tariff impact and kind of how you see customers positioning for kind of the policy uncertainty that we're kinda working through right now you know, I think that would be helpful.

39m 38s

Thanks.

39m 40s

Yeah. I wanna, clarify that. It's an important point. There's no lost contract that we've seen. In fact, it's more about being able to lean into some of the growth opportunities that were out there for us to capture, and a lot of that was on our unit train side of our business. So that's where it's concentrated, but there's other instances and I I I would also, point out that we've done a, you know, the communication that we have with the operating team and the great job that Shannon, who runs our customer service group does, who really mitigated the the real the real issues at the at the customer sites and continue to, you know, prioritize where it really makes sense those those shipments, and making sure those things are getting delivered, and we're not creating disruptions for our customers.

40m 22s

But it was really about leaning into further growth opportunities. On the tariff side, you know, it changes every day. There's a lot of conversations. Joe, myself, I've been spending a lot of time with our customers. We've had a number of conferences and other events, and it's, you know, it's obviously a fluid situation. There's a lot of positives that can come out of this, and, clearly, there's there's some uncertainty on the consumer side and what that means for basic consumption in The U. S. But there's obviously longer term, if you see more industrial production coming to The US, that's a very, very big positive for for for The US and and our network because we're well positioned to capture a lot of that activity, given where we are in the Southeast and Midwest primarily.

41m 6s

So, I think, you know, right now, we're trying to stay as close as we can in each one of markets, trying to understand how the freight flows are gonna change. Clearly, with these tariffs, they will change. I think you could see a lot of, benefits from decoupling from China that could benefit the East Coast, potentially, and we're watching that and making sure we're staying upfront of it both with a investments and how we're thinking about that and really working with our customers to position them so they can capture the markets as they change.

41m 34s

Yeah. Let me just add real quick. This is Joe. You know, I think last earnings call, we talked about we had during the fourth quarter of last year, we had our highest ever net promoter score from our customers. And we're really proud of that because that happened during a very difficult time period during the hurricanes and everything. We still while it declined a little bit in the first quarter, we still have one of our highest scores ever, and significantly up from the year before. When we were running a lot better, frankly. So it's a testament to the work that's going into our customer service and the focus we have on communicating with customers prioritizing where they tell us to prioritize, and making sure that they know what we know so that we can, you know, plan our business accordingly. So that's a major improvement that we've made as an organization over the last several years is that connectivity with the customer and that comp to communication. So when things don't go as planned, we're still in touch, and we're all making sure we adjust and they adjust as as appropriate. We'll we'll continue to to obviously, continue to prioritize that.

42m 31s

As Kevin mentioned, the biggest opportunity we left on the table was really on unit trains, really call in January and February. We got we had much better performance in call in March. And then really the grain, throughout the quarter because we had so many issues through that Midwestern corridor that's been while the traffic is pushed over from the East given the the the shutdowns we have right now. But we'll get we'll get back on that as weather certainly cooperates better, but also as our network gets better. Thanks.

42m 59s

Our next question comes from the line of Brian Ossenbeck with JPMorgan. Please go ahead. [indiscernible] just to clarify the revenue [indiscernible] still sitting there that you can go after again and just available picked up on service? Or did you potentially lose it and then just be kind of getting back to normal? So first clarification. And then secondly, maybe Sean, if you can update us on the guidance you gave last quarter, which was the low end of the the target mid single to high single digit EPS or I'm sorry EBIT growth from the Investor Day for this year when you back out sort of the normalization that you called out. So given everything that's happened just wanted to see if you could update us. On that as well. Thanks.

43m 49s

Yes, I'll start off on the you know, some of that revenue, I think you could say was perishable, but a lot of it is getting back up to the demand that the markets are seeing right now. And so that's an opportunity in the second quarter where we see strong demand some of these specific markets that we're meeting that demand level and they're not having to alternatives.

44m 8s

And so some of it was perishable, there's a big opportunity in 2Q. Versus 1Q.

44m 15s

Brian, I would just add on the second part of some of second part of the question. I think given what we did on the volume guide, and the uncertainty that's out there, I think you know, it's that bleeds over into sort of what we're thinking, when it comes to EBIT or operating income as well as margins. I think it's challenging to pin down exactly how things are gonna play out over the course of the year. The there's opportunities there for sure. As Kevin's outlined here. And, you know, Mike's talked about in terms of improving the fluidity of the network. Both of those things are important. The demand environment is is important as well. And all of that will feed into how well we're able to do, on a full year basis. You know, that being said, when you look at what we what we're hit with this year, some of the things that relate to the outages we've got in the costs associated with that, but also what we were hit with here in the first quarter It's all temporary impacts. Right? These are things that will cycle So as we exit, 2025 and think forward to the next couple of years, still feel good about the guidance that we gave in November on the three year CAGRs down the line.

45m 23s

Your next question comes from the line of Christian Wetherbee with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

45m 30s

Yes. Hey, thanks. Good afternoon, guys. Sean, maybe a quick follow-up on that and then one for Kevin. I guess, to make sure I understand, I think you guys talked about potentially growing profit in the back half of the year. I guess when you think about that, is that something that is maybe a little bit harder to do with the sort of uncertain volume environment and maybe thinking about that separate from some of the costs that you're carrying from the service challenges that you're facing? And I guess just for for Kevin, when you I think you said in the remarks earlier that maybe something on the intermodal side had changed a bit in early April. Just want to get a sense of what that was or if I heard that correctly.

46m 7s

Yeah.

46m 7s

Christian, we'll we'll stay away from guidance quarterly or or full year guidance. Of course, that being said, Joe outlined, the commodity price headwinds that we're facing will ease as we go through the year. Assuming that met coal prices remain stable, fuel prices remain relatively close to where they are right now. The comps get a little bit easier in the back half, and we also had the hurricane impacts from last year in the fourth quarter. So that makes year over year growth a little easier in the second half of the year. But a lot depends on, you know, what happens in the macro and, of course, the improvement in the operations.

46m 44s

Yeah. On the intermodal side, the point was we saw some acceleration in late March and kind of continuing in through this month and we believe, you know, a portion of that's probably related some pull forward related to the tariffs. So some strength in the market that we're seeing, currently.

47m 2s

Your next question comes from the line of Ken Hoexter with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

47m 8s

Hey, good afternoon. Joe, maybe just talking about that same thing that the big picture here on volume, you're talking positive volume growth. And 1Q was mentioned to be trough, but I guess if we start thinking about that maybe a cliff of volumes seems like if China is down 20%, 25%, when you mentioned things like, hey, we can pick up some industrial activity, I presume that's longer term? Or are you suggesting that there are things near term that can kind of offset that? Then just a quick number question for Mike that the on time arrivals of 55%, origination of 68%, is that adjusted for the construction projects or is that just weather impacts? I'm just trying to understand what normal would look like. Thanks. [indiscernible] regular schedule. That's not adjusted for any of the any of the outages. That's just the performance that we have right now and that we need to improve. [indiscernible] answer the rest of your part of your question. I mean, first of all, we have to remember and recognize that the industrial part of the economy has been in kind of a negative growth environment for better part of almost two years.

48m 19s

And so there may be some opportunity as that if that starts to pick up. What we're seeing in real time is, our order orders coming from steel plants is going up.

48m 29s

As you might imagine, there's a lot of discussion around increased steel production in The U. Given the tariffs that are happening You could see a scenario where The US certainly, you expect to see a scenario where The US auto production picks up in The United States, maybe not North America in total. But in The US, and that will drive both steel and aluminum, but also other parts, but also core finished vehicle deliveries. You can see that scenario playing out.

48m 56s

Housing is still, as Kevin mentioned in his remarks, still down and you know, I'm I'm not gonna be one to try and predict when that recovers. But you could start to see a little bit of movement certainly in the auto space and that's we'll watch that one very carefully, especially for us in the East.

49m 11s

You know, we're lot of The US plants are in our footprint. But but medium term, we're still bullish on industrial development projects that we continue to talk about. Then as Kevin mentioned, the first quarter was a lot of activity. Even in increased level of activity for their team, which that's a good sign. And so that's gonna continue. We talked about it already, you know, twenty some coming online in the first quarter and more coming online this year. So you know, we're watching to see what happens on the industrial part of the economy that could be helpful. But to reiterate, coal demand volume wise is still there.

49m 48s

I mean, certainly met coal prices have come down, but export volumes, we've had some mine outages. Which affected us a little bit. But there's still some increased activity now on the domestic utility side. So coal volume is still there. It grows a very strong grain harvest, especially in a lot of grain needed to move to the Southeast. So the grain volume has continued to be strong. Aggregates, we expect to continue to be strong. Minerals should you know, and minerals should be should be okay with all the construction projects and everything going on. So we go sector by sector, Obviously, there's some weakness in some areas. We watch chemicals very closely because our largest sector and that one was kind of, you know, kind of flat year over year in the first quarter. But you can see that one hopefully holding firm And then you've got these other areas where you can see some growth. So in the medium term, we can see in the near term, rather, we can see some opportunity the second quarter and we got to make sure we can we have the network flowing to be able to realize it. Thanks.

50m 42s

Your next question comes from the line of Jordan Alliger with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

50m 49s

Hi. Yes, just wanted to come back to the industrial industrial development. It seemed pretty optimistic. I'm just sort of curious I know it's still early probably the tariffs and potential boost to domestic industrial production. But are you starting are you actually hearing that maybe there's some thought about accelerating decisions to go ahead And then secondly, have you thought about the previous tailwind you talked about for the project long term, I think was about 2%. I mean, are you thinking maybe there could be some potential upside to that? Thanks.

51m 24s

Yeah. You know, in terms of upside, I think the potential is these these current projects are brought online quicker and ramp up [indiscernible] If the demand environment supports it. We look at the metal side and obviously timing could be very, very good when you think about tariffs and needing domestic production there on aluminum and other parts where we're well positioned to really benefit from that. That's what we're watching. I, you know, I don't think at this stage, given that it's a very fluid situation, that we're seeing a lot of acceleration of decision making. Think the rules need to be set. For that to happen, but clearly, you know, the administration is looking pointing to trying to incentivize domestic production, and that would be a very good thing for our network.

52m 10s

Your next question comes from the line of Jason Seidl with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

52m 16s

Thanks, operator. Joe and team, good afternoon, everyone. I wanted to focus a little bit on the intermodal side and how we should think about sort of the reported yields going forward? Because, you know, if you take a look at the international trade, the booking numbers are are are down pretty drastically. So they're could be a shift coming your way soon. And one of the major intermodal players was talking about at least some of the slightly disappointing numbers on the pricing side of the domestic market. So something maybe you can work through that with us for the modeling purposes.

52m 51s

Yeah. You know, we've largely gone through bidding season think you got some pretty good commentary, through, you know, already one that's already reported and that is a partner of ours. So, you know, probably, we're we are where we are for the remainder of the year, probably not a huge opportunity for an inflection in the back half of the year from a pricing perspective. If you saw more strength in domestic versus our international business, that generally is a positive from a yield, from an RPU perspective. And so we'll see if that plays out as we get through the year and if domestic business picks up, that would be a positive from that aspect. But it's you know, there's a lot of moving parts right now. And we're just working with our customers and our partners to make sure that we're meeting the demand and and looking at the freight flows. And if they're changing, working with Mike and his team to make sure we're we're on top of that.

53m 42s

Your next question comes from the line of Ravi Shanker with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

53m 48s

Great, good afternoon.

53m 49s

Just a couple of housekeeping items here. Can you just remind us of the updated coal contracts if there is a floor to on the benchmark price. I think there was before or not. And second, any color on the other revenues in little bit of step down here? What's a good run rate for the rest of the year?

54m 15s

Yeah. You know, every every contract's unique, so there's not a a certain, floor. But yeah, we're we're above those four levels, today. But they all have floors embedded in it. And, hopefully, we don't touch those floors, where we are based on what we've seen here recently with a little bit of stabilization over the last couple of months.

54m 35s

And Ravi, the other revenue, yes, came in a little bit lower. I'd say there's a lot of items that go into that line item from subsidiary revenue to storage to revenue reserves.

54m 45s

So it can be a little bit more challenging to predict I'd say where we are now is a pretty good run rate going forward, maybe plus or minus a little from the 115 that we saw in Q1.

54m 58s

Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Imbro with Stephens Inc. Please go ahead.

55m 5s

Yes. Hey, good evening. Thanks, guys.

55m 7s

You want to dig in on the cost side a little bit here. On headcount specifically, I think volume has been softer to start the year. I think last quarter the expectation was maybe flattish headcount this year. Sean, can you just talk about how volume dependent that headcount trajectory is through the year? Could you flex it lower if volume remained underwhelming? And then similarly, I think you baked most of your union contracts for the back half of the year. So how should we be thinking about maybe comp per head inflation as we move through the year? Thanks.

55m 37s

Yes. Thanks for the question. I'll answer it. Mike, if you have anything to add, feel free. But on the headcount side, I mean, think where we are in Q1, yes, we didn't move as much volume. But because the network is not as fluid as it should be, you're using your crews inefficiently. So as service recovers, volume goes up and, you know, the crews are working more efficiently and and running the trains on schedule. So I think we're in a good spot when it comes to crews. I think we're in a good spot really across the support functions as well. Clearly, if there's a major drop off in volume, we we adjust to that and and we flex but that's not the base case for us. So, I think we'll see headcount remain relatively flat through the year. There'll be some timing impacts with training and all of that, but nothing significant. From quarter to quarter. And then in terms of comp per employee I think you hit on it. In terms of second half, you'll see the 4% wage increase hit. That's really the only difference between first half and second half. The expectation would be that going from Q1 to Q2, we should see a little bit of a decline in in Comprehed.

56m 41s

Especially when you consider some of the overtime we were running related to weather issues and storms in the first part of the year. But then second half, really just inflation.

56m 56s

Your next question comes from the line of Rica Hernan with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. I guess just one on the revenue opportunity that was sort of left behind. I guess, can you quantify that maybe further like and how easy I appreciated the comments around the the Net Promoter Scores being still very, very good despite some of the disruptions you faced in the first quarter. But how easy is that share shift opportunity to come back to your network?

57m 33s

Yeah. You know, we've obviously done a lot of work internally with the math and what the math would suggest is, you know, somewhere you know, million plus, a day in in revenue opportunity if you look at cycle times that were more normalized in some of these markets. You know, sometimes you don't know the exact demand because you're not up against it, but that's you know, that's rough math that we've done here internally. And then on the know, on the on the net promoter score, I think we've earned a trust. We have some great relationships with our customers, and, you know, the team has done a great of staying in front of them, communicating, sharing, you know, when we're gonna have issues, when we have storms on the network. Our communication levels have never been better about getting in front of it so our customers can plan. So we have every expectation as we run better that the the customers have stayed with us. They trust what we're doing. We're over communicating where we can and we've really built that trust with our customers. So we expect and I mentioned before, the contracts, we've continued to maintain, our share in the market, we believe, and, you'll see that as we improve our network operations.

58m 40s

Your next question comes from the line of Walter Spracklin with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

58m 47s

Thanks very much, operator. Good afternoon, everyone. Kevin, you called out a favorable partner alignment in your international intermodal side an opportunity. Can you expand a bit on that? And if that's going to create any additional opportunities as any of those partner alignments perhaps get a little bit get a little bit more or get deeper or or if you can expand them to other partners as well.

59m 14s

I wasn't I wasn't necessarily being specific to any one specific relationship. I think we are well positioned when you look at our portfolio on the international side, longer term with some partners that are really focused on growth and are think our winners in the market So that wasn't a specific reference to any new contract or anything like that on that side, but we are well positioned there. And we're doing a lot of unique things, I think, an inland port perspective and other things really with our customers to find growth opportunities for them. You know, we're thinking a lot about the shift away from China and, you know, certainly that we believe that helps the East Coast. And, working with the ports there and really making sure we're positioned to you know, where there's opportunity and where freight flows wanna come into the East. And move, further into our network that we're well well ahead of it and, have the capabilities, quite frankly, to to handle that business.

1h 6s

Your next question comes from the line of David Vernon with Bernstein. Please go ahead.

1h 12s

Yes, good afternoon guys and thanks for taking the question.

1h 15s

So Mike, as you think about the resiliency part of of restoring service levels, is this a resource issue? Is it just a scheduling issue and a and a and a lack of weather issue? I'm just wondering if you're going be able to kind of get the service metrics back on track here before some of the, the work is done and, like, how are Street or whether we're gonna be kinda living with this these challenges for the rest of the year?

1h 40s

No. Thanks for the question, David. It it is it gonna be a gradual process to get the network back. And so it's not going to be overnight. Our focus is really over this next quarter to get into position to take advantage of some of the tapering of some of the commodities. [indiscernible] Again, the compounding weather that's affected us has really made us so go back to the the position of we have to start from scratch. This last piece of flooding really affected a key corridor for us that we counted on to take the traffic off the Howard Street and the Blue Ridge reroutes. So it's gonna be it's gonna be a process. But we'll we'll get through it. Just not gonna be overnight. It's gonna be throughout the quarter.

1h 1m 27s

Next question comes from the line of Bascome Majors with Susquehanna. Please go ahead. [indiscernible] you work through a lot of disruption, you know, many of them out of your control, some of them chosen like Howard Street and and dig out and also face, a demand picture that's more uncertain today than in was a month ago. I mean, clearly, '25 is be a challenging year in a lot of ways. But, Joe, as we look to next year is 2026 the year that investors should judge the financial output of your strategy? Or do you think it makes more sense to look to 2027 and year three of the three year plan to really get a clean comp and enough time to really have the outcomes that you've driven? Thank you.

1h 2m 17s

Thank you. Yeah, Bascome. Thanks for the question. I'll answer the the question, but first, I wanna take a step back because know, we've been on this journey, you know, for over two and a half years. And if you look at now that we have our some of our segment reporting in our 10 q and then we had the 10 ks, you can kind of see more clearly the trucking and the rail side of the business If you look at in 2023, our margins were 40% best in the and the rail margins were 40% best in the industry.

1h 2m 48s

Year, we're 39%, second best in the industry. And so our strategy, if you wanna call it that, has been working and leading and providing leading levels of customer service and margin. Clearly, when you start to look at the data, late fall of last year or fall of last year, our cars online started to go up a little bit. Our dwell started going up a little bit. And then the hurricanes hit. And and then you've seen the data since then. You can do a direct correlation between the dwell, the cars online, the trip plan compliance, and what's happened. And, you know, we're all committed to getting back those levels. So the the the three year kind of thesis we laid out in investor day in November is still something we believe in, and we actually feel we will we can and will deliver.

1h 3m 37s

Obviously, we had a, you know, a worse first quarter than we were expecting. To be sure. But the fundamentals of the first quarter that we were that we were projecting still held true, lower net coal prices, lower fuel surcharge, you know, the Howard Street tunnel and the Blue Ridge rebuilds know, having some impact on our on our network. And so, as we cycle through all that and we continue to execute the levels we know we're capable of doing, getting the getting the dwell, the velocity back to where it was prior to the hurricanes, getting the cars online down, and realizing the potential, the fluidity of this network. And how we focus on customer service and relationships we have with customers. We haven't lost a major contract and I'm really proud of that because it's really important as we build for the future. All those fundamentals should continue to deliver exactly what we talked about in November at Investor Day. So it's a twenty six, twenty seven story. To be sure, our expectation is, of course, as Sean laid out in November that we see and Kevin we see some industrial production improvement over that time period.

1h 4m 42s

And if you take out all the volatility of met coal prices and fuel, we should see those kind of improvement levels that we talked about. Now we have a more near term prove it scenario, which is we gotta demonstrate to you and and to all of our shareholders and to all of our stakeholders that can get ourselves out of this situation we're in. And I feel confident we'll be able to do that, and we have the team to do that. We know what it takes. We know how to do it. Actually, we did it in the fall of twenty two pretty pretty quickly without the outer free tunnel and the Blue Ridge issues, but we had fewer people. So our team knows how to do this. Mike and his team are working around the clock seven days a week on on looking at everything that we can do to make that happen. So in their term, we show you we can get our network back to the kind of you know, kinda up to industry industry leading levels and service and and margins.

1h 5m 31s

And then realize that growth in volume that we believe will come of industrial development, and from industrial production and hopefully economic growth as well. So I'd say '26, '27, but in the near term, we gotta we gotta get our network back. And give you confidence that we can deliver those volumes. Thanks.

1h 5m 51s

Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Kaufman with Vertical Research Partners. Please go ahead.

1h 5m 58s

Thank you very much and thank you for squeezing me in. A question more for Kevin. And it might be a tough one to answer, but if you were to try to put some circles around buckets of pre ship or some tariff accelerated related business you may have seen What's your best shot at that? [indiscernible] a tough one. I think, you know, obviously, it's probably concentrated on the international intermodal side. On the container side. And you know, it's consumer products, things like that if you can. But, you know, you know, they lead times on these things. First, you gotta get you know, you gotta put the order into the factory. It's gotta get to the obviously, the port, where it's being manufactured, and then it takes weeks on a on a on a ship. And so the ability to really get ahead of this is probably pretty limited. But I I did wanna recognize there's probably a few points couple points that we're seeing probably on our international side here currently. Related to some of that dynamic. I do think, you know, from an export perspective, as as things really shift, we're we're thinking more and more about the advantages of the East Coast.

1h 7m 12s

Versus the West. Obviously, the West has been very leveraged to China. And as freight flows, you know, change, if ag products don't wanna go to China, where are they gonna go? Could they, you know, are they gonna go to Europe and other places as as those are supplemented, from other areas? So there's a lot of moving parts. I think some of these things, really benefit where we're positioned as a network, but all these things are very, very fluid right now. And we're just trying to stay ahead of it and make sure we're actively thinking about it with our customers. And so we can deliver the solutions when, they decide where these freight freight flows wanna wanna go. We're there for them. Your final question today comes from the line of Scott Group with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

1h 7m 58s

Good evening. This is Ivan Yee on for Scott. Thanks for the time. Last question related to tariffs again. What roughly what percent of your volumes or revenues are in fact tied to China? I imagine it's mostly international intermodal, but is there any material China exposure in any other commodity segments?

1h 8m 14s

Thank you.

1h 8m 17s

Yeah. We're Yeah. We don't know, obviously, given our East Coast position, we're really not as leveraged to to China as as others. So it's pretty you know, it's probably concentrated on that that, intermodal side for us that comes over the West Coast and in our network.

1h 8m 34s

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation and you may now disconnect.

Key Insights

CSX reported a challenging first quarter, with total revenue down 7% year-over-year to $3.4 billion, earnings per share down 24%, and total volume down 1%, primarily due to operational disruptions from major infrastructure projects (Howard Street Tunnel and Blue Ridge subdivision) and severe winter weather.
Intermodal volumes increased 2% driven by higher port traffic, but carload trip plan compliance and overall network fluidity suffered due to congestion, weather, and reroutes; management is focused on restoring service levels by reducing excess cars, adding locomotives, and improving asset utilization.
Coal revenue declined 27% on 9% lower volume, with export tonnage down 12% and domestic tonnage down 4%; management expects continued headwinds from lower benchmark coal prices in Q2, but anticipates these will ease in the back half of the year.
Expenses rose 2% in Q1, including $45 million in additional costs from network disruptions and weather; headcount is expected to remain flat for the year, with a 4% wage increase hitting in the second half.
CSX maintains its full-year 2025 guidance for overall volume growth and unchanged CapEx forecast, expecting Q1 to be the earnings trough; management anticipates sequential improvement as network fluidity is restored and remains optimistic about long-term growth from industrial development projects and U.S. manufacturing expansion.

Recent Transcripts

CSX's Q1 earnings missed expectations amid operational disruptions, but management expects sequential improvement.

CSX navigated significant 2024 disruptions, delivering modest volume growth but facing revenue and margin headwinds.

Income Statement

Revenue

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Revenue	$11B	$13B	$15B	$15B	$15B
Cost of Revenue	$6.2B	$7.4B	$9.1B	$9.1B	$9.2B
Gross Profit	$4.4B	$5.1B	$5.8B	$5.5B	$5.3B
Gross Profit %	41%	41%	39%	38%	37%
R&D Expenses	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

Revenue

$11B

$13B

$15B

Cost of Revenue

$6.2B

$7.4B

$9.1B

$9.2B

Gross Profit

$4.4B

$5.1B

$5.8B

$5.5B

$5.3B

Gross Profit %

41%

39%

38%

37%

R&D Expenses

Cash Flow

Net Income

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Net Income	$2.8B	$3.8B	$4.2B	$3.7B	$3.7B
Dep. & Amort.	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.5B	$1.6B	$1.6B
Def. Tax	$180M	$167M	$117M	$140M	$140M
Stock Comp.	$29M	$107M	$74M	$0	$0
Chg. in WC	$2M	$173M	$91M	$122M	$0

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

Net Income

$2.8B

$3.8B

$4.2B

$3.7B

Dep. & Amort.

$1.4B

$1.5B

$1.6B

Def. Tax

$180M

$167M

$117M

$140M

Stock Comp.

$29M

$107M

$74M

Chg. in WC

$2M

$173M

$91M

$122M

Balance Sheet

Cash

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Cash	$3.1B	$2.2B	$2B	$1.4B	$933M
ST Investments	$2M	$77M	$129M	$83M	$72M
Cash & ST Inv.	$3.1B	$2.3B	$2.1B	$1.4B	$1B
Receivables	$912M	$1.1B	$1.3B	$1.4B	$1.3B
Inventory	$302M	$339M	$341M	$446M	$0

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

Cash

$3.1B

$2.2B

$2B

$1.4B

$933M

ST Investments

$2M

$77M

$129M

$83M

$72M

Cash & ST Inv.

$3.1B

$2.3B

$2.1B

$1.4B

$1B

Receivables

$912M

$1.1B

$1.3B

$1.4B

$1.3B

Inventory

$302M

$339M

$341M

$446M

Go Deeper

Financial information provided by Financial Modeling Prep. Options data provided by Unusual Whales. Live transcripts provided by Quartr. All data is provided for informational purposes only, and is not intended for trading purposes or financial, investment, tax, legal, accounting or other advice. · See all tickers.

Overview
Latest News
Earnings
Income Statement
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Related

Earnings

Report Date

Apr 16, 2025

Reported Revenue

3.4B

Avg 1d Change

3.36%

Report Period

Q1 2025

Reported EPS

0.34

Implied Move 1d

3.5%

Transcript

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25m 29s

Thank you, Kevin, and good afternoon.

25m 31s

26m 50s

Which will drive revenue and expense benefits moving through the year. Let's now turn to the next slide and take a closer look at expense.

27m

Total first quarter expense increased by 2% or $38,000,000 This includes around $45,000,000 of additional costs related to network disruption congestion and severe winter weather.

27m 13s

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28m 6s

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Of capital.

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29m 4s

After fully funding capital investments, we are committed to returning cash to shareholders.

29m 9s

29m 28s

Okay. Thank you, Sean.

29m 30s

Now we will conclude our remarks by walking through our updated guidance for the full year 2025.

29m 36s

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31m 3s

31m 28s

Your first question comes from the line of Tom Wadewitz with UBS. Please go ahead.

31m 36s

Yes, good afternoon.

31m 38s

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34m 47s

But it's gonna take gonna take the time and definitely, it's gonna get the effort from everybody from me on down. Hope that answers you.

34m 55s

Your next question comes from the line of Brandon Oglenski with Barclays. Please go ahead.

35m 2s

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36m 56s

Your next question comes from the line of John Chappell with ISI. Please go ahead.

37m 3s

37m 44s

39m 5s

Your next question comes from the line of Ari Rosa with Citigroup. Please go ahead.

39m 14s

Great. Good afternoon. So you mentioned some of the lost customer contracts. I was just hoping maybe you could quantify that.

39m 21s

39m 38s

Thanks.

39m 40s

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42m 31s

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44m 8s

And so some of it was perishable, there's a big opportunity in 2Q. Versus 1Q.

44m 15s

45m 23s

Your next question comes from the line of Christian Wetherbee with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

45m 30s

46m 7s

Yeah.

46m 7s

46m 44s

47m 2s

Your next question comes from the line of Ken Hoexter with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

47m 8s

48m 19s

And so there may be some opportunity as that if that starts to pick up. What we're seeing in real time is, our order orders coming from steel plants is going up.

48m 29s

48m 56s

49m 11s

49m 48s

50m 42s

Your next question comes from the line of Jordan Alliger with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

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Your next question comes from the line of Jason Seidl with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

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Your next question comes from the line of Ravi Shanker with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

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Great, good afternoon.

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And Ravi, the other revenue, yes, came in a little bit lower. I'd say there's a lot of items that go into that line item from subsidiary revenue to storage to revenue reserves.

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So it can be a little bit more challenging to predict I'd say where we are now is a pretty good run rate going forward, maybe plus or minus a little from the 115 that we saw in Q1.

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Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Imbro with Stephens Inc. Please go ahead.

55m 5s

Yes. Hey, good evening. Thanks, guys.

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Especially when you consider some of the overtime we were running related to weather issues and storms in the first part of the year. But then second half, really just inflation.

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Your next question comes from the line of Walter Spracklin with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

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Your next question comes from the line of David Vernon with Bernstein. Please go ahead.

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Yes, good afternoon guys and thanks for taking the question.

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Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Kaufman with Vertical Research Partners. Please go ahead.

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Thank you.

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Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation and you may now disconnect.

Key Insights

CSX reported a challenging first quarter, with total revenue down 7% year-over-year to $3.4 billion, earnings per share down 24%, and total volume down 1%, primarily due to operational disruptions from major infrastructure projects (Howard Street Tunnel and Blue Ridge subdivision) and severe winter weather.
Intermodal volumes increased 2% driven by higher port traffic, but carload trip plan compliance and overall network fluidity suffered due to congestion, weather, and reroutes; management is focused on restoring service levels by reducing excess cars, adding locomotives, and improving asset utilization.
Coal revenue declined 27% on 9% lower volume, with export tonnage down 12% and domestic tonnage down 4%; management expects continued headwinds from lower benchmark coal prices in Q2, but anticipates these will ease in the back half of the year.
Expenses rose 2% in Q1, including $45 million in additional costs from network disruptions and weather; headcount is expected to remain flat for the year, with a 4% wage increase hitting in the second half.
CSX maintains its full-year 2025 guidance for overall volume growth and unchanged CapEx forecast, expecting Q1 to be the earnings trough; management anticipates sequential improvement as network fluidity is restored and remains optimistic about long-term growth from industrial development projects and U.S. manufacturing expansion.