CSX Names James (Jim) M. Foote As Its New CEO And President

CSX Corporation’s (NASDAQ:CSX) board of directors has announced James (Jim) M. Foote as the company’s new president and CEO with immediate effect. Foote will also be on the company’s board.

Foote has served as the executive vice president and chief operating officer of CSX since October. On Dec 14, he assumed the position of acting CEO after E. Hunter Harrison went on medical leave. Harrison subsequently died.

Previously, Foote has served as the executive vice president of sales and marketing at Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) . It remains to be seen how well Foote is able to handle Harrison’s operations, given his experience in sales and marketing for the better part of his career.

However, Foote has years of experience in the railroad industry behind him and the board is hopeful of his capabilities in running the company and functioning it well.

CSX Corporation Price

CSX Corporation Price | CSX Corporation Quote

On a positive note, the newly appointed CEO claimed to provide updates on the progress of Precision Scheduled Railroading at the upcoming investor day in March.

The precision scheduled railroading model adopted by CSX’s former CEO Hunter Harrison to improve its efficiencies has helped the company make a substantial progress over the last few months. Driven by improved efficiencies, the company expects its bottom line to expand between 20% and 25% in 2017 on a year-over-year basis. Operating ratio is also estimated to improve.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

CSX carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the broader Transportation sector include Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. (NYSE:GOL) and LATAM Airlines Group S.A. (NYSE:LTM) , both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of Gol Linhas have skyrocketed around 200% in a year while LATAM Airlines shares have soared more than 64% in a year.

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