Genesee & Wyoming (GWR) Reports 9.9% Decline In May Traffic

Genesee & Wyoming (NYSE:GWR) reported disappointing traffic figures for May. Traffic in the month was 264,098 carloads, reflecting a 9.9% decrease year over year. The company’s same railroad traffic (excluding carloads from the Continental European intermodal business sold last June) fell 5.8%.

Segmental Traffic

Traffic at the company’s North American operations declined 8.1% from the year-ago figure due to contraction in traffic across all the segments except agricultural products and autos & auto parts. Traffic at coal & coke, metals and pulp & paper segments was down 20.8%, 16.9% and 9.7%, respectively. Severe weather conditions hampered North American shipments.

Australian operations (owned 51.1% by the company) traffic declined9.3% due to slump in traffic at all the segments except petroleum products. Traffic at the agricultural products unit dropped a massive 55%.

Total traffic at the U.K./European operations deteriorated 13.2% from the last May-level, thanks to a decrease in traffic across all its segments. Traffic at the coal & coke and agricultural products segments plunged 81.1% and 52.1%, respectively.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Genesee & Wyoming carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Transportation sector are Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) , Air China Ltd. (OTC:AIRYY) and GATX Corporation (NYSE:GATX) . While Air China sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Norfolk Southern and GATX carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of Air China and Norfolk Southern have rallied more than 9% and 29% each, so far this year. Meanwhile, GATX flaunts a stellar earnings record, having trumped the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average being 16%.

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