Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC) Stock

Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC) is a Industrials stock trading at $352.99 (as of 2026-08-24), with a market capitalization of $79.28B and a trailing P/E of 31.2. Figures are sourced from first-party U.S. SEC EDGAR filings and market data.

Norfolk Southern Corporation and its subsidiaries provide rail transportation services in the United States, moving raw materials, intermediate products, and finished goods such as agricultural commodities, chemicals, metals and construction materials, and automotive goods (including coal). It also transports freight via ports and offers intermodal and commuter passenger rail services.

Understand Norfolk Southern Corporation: how it makes money

Norfolk Southern operates a freight rail network, transporting raw materials, intermediate products, and finished goods in the United States, and it makes money by charging for moving these commodities, with some results influenced by fuel surcharge mechanisms.

Railway operating revenue depends on freight volumes and mix across categories (merchandise, intermodal, coal), and reported revenue can be affected by fuel surcharge mechanics (shown by both fuel surcharge revenues and revenue excluding fuel).

Business quality (Solid): The provided facts clearly identify Norfolk Southern's rail business and the key operating revenue metric, but there is no clean, confirmed set of official reportable segments to break revenue into mutually exclusive groups.

Valuation: At 26× earnings, NSC trades 50% above the Transportation average (18×). Note: one-time items can distort reported P/E.

Bull case

Broad commodity coverage within rail freight: The company transports agriculture, forest, and consumer products (including soybeans, wheat, corn, fertilizers, livestock and poultry feed, food products, ethanol, lumber and wood products) plus chemicals (including sulfur and related chemicals, petroleum products, and chlorine and related chemicals).
Revenue measurement framework highlights what drives results: The reporting set includes both railway operating revenues (GAAP) and railway operating revenues with fuel surcharge excluded (non-GAAP), helping investors separate underlying revenue movement from fuel surcharge effects.

Bear case

Fuel surcharge effects can create reported revenue headwinds: The provided figures include a fuel surcharge revenue headwind (dollar) of 0.12 USD_B, indicating that fuel surcharge mechanics can pressure revenue versus an underlying view.
Coal is a defined revenue contributor: Coal revenue is shown as 0.43 USD_B in the provided operational KPI candidates, so performance could be sensitive to changes in that commodity category.

Valuation — source: SEC EDGAR (first-party)
Price	$352.99
Market Cap	$79.28B
P/E Ratio	31.2
EV / EBITDA	14.5
Price / Book	4.88
Price / Sales	6.31
FCF Yield	2.9%
DCF Value (model)	$312.37
DCF Upside vs Price	-11.5%

Profitability & Growth — source: SEC EDGAR
Revenue (TTM)	$12.18B
Net Margin	23.6%
Revenue Growth (YoY)	0.5%
EPS Growth (YoY)	10.2%
FCF Growth (YoY)	29.1%

Financial Health — source: SEC EDGAR
Altman Z-Score	2.58 (grey)

Valuation vs Sector & Industry
Stock P/E	31.2
Sector P/E (Industrials)	26.0
Industry P/E (Transportation)	17.0
vs Sector	20.2%
vs Industry	83.7%

Smart-Money Activity — SEC Form 4 / 13F / Congressional disclosures
Top Institutional Holder	Decagon Asset Management LLP ($62.00B)
Institutional Holders Tracked	10
Congressional Trades (recent)	10

Company
Sector	Industrials
Industry	Transportation
CEO	Mark R. George
Employees	19,600
Country	US
IPO Date	1982-06-02

Related Companies (Transportation; 8 comparable transport companies)

Data as of 2026-08-24.

Figures sourced from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC EDGAR) filings and market data. Not personalized investment advice.