Genesee & Wyoming's (GWR) Traffic Decreases In February

Genesee & Wyoming (NYSE:GWR) reported disappointing traffic figures for February. Traffic in the month was 237,072 carloads, reflecting a 6.8% decrease year over year. The railroad’s same railroad traffic (excluding carloads from the Continental European intermodal business sold in June 2018) slid 1.8%.

Segmental Traffic

Traffic at the company’s North American operations declined 4.8% from the year-ago figure due to contraction in traffic across most segments. Traffic at metallic ores, coal & coke and lumber & forest products segments dropped 32.3%, 16% and 14.2%, respectively. Severe weather conditions during the winter hampered North American shipments. Agricultural products, autos & auto parts, intermodal, metals, pulp & paper and waste were the only segments to report a rise in traffic.

Australian operations (owned 51.1% by the company) traffic dipped 0.7% due to 75.9% and 50% slump in traffic at agricultural products and petroleum products, each. The intermodal and minerals & stone segments also reported a fall in traffic.

Total traffic at U.K./European operations contracted 12.9% from the last February-level due to decrease in traffic across all its segments except Coal & Coke.

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) , Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP) and SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) . While SkyWest sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific have rallied more than 31% and 20%, respectively, in a year. Meanwhile, the SkyWest stock has an impressive earnings history, having outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the preceding four quarters, the average being 16.9%.

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