Norfolk Southern Corporation
NSC Industrials Railroads
Norfolk Southern Corporation’s revenue for fiscal 2025 (year ended December 2025) was $12.2 billion, roughly unchanged from fiscal 2024. In the quarter to June 2026, revenue grew 11.4%, EPS fell 4.40%, free cash flow fell 3.08% and total debt fell 4.32%, each against the same quarter a year earlier. Member of the S&P 500; dividend growth for twenty-five consecutive years; insiders bought in the last twelve months.
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Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC) Altman Z-score
Norfolk Southern Corporation's Altman Z-score for fiscal 2025 is 2.29, in the grey zone (1.81–2.99).
Altman Z-score, annual
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Annual newest first
| Period | Altman Z-score | Change (points) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | 2.29 | 0.25 |
| FY2024 | 2.05 | 0.04 |
| FY2023 | 2.01 | (0.42) |
| FY2022 | 2.43 | (0.43) |
| FY2021 | 2.86 | 0.29 |
| FY2020 | 2.57 | 0.09 |
| FY2019 | 2.47 | 0.11 |
| FY2018 | 2.37 | (0.09) |
| FY2017 | 2.46 | 0.62 |
| FY2016 | 1.83 | 0.12 |
How fiscal 2025’s score is made up
| Component | This year | Year before | Result | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Working capital / total assets | (0.01) | — | −0.02 | |
| Retained earnings / total assets | 0.29 | — | 0.41 | |
| EBIT / total assets | 0.10 | — | 0.32 | |
| Market value of equity / total liabilities | 2.19 | — | 1.31 | |
| Sales / total assets | 0.27 | — | 0.27 | |
| Altman Z-score | Grey zone | 2.29 | ||
| Z″ Variant for non-manufacturing and asset-light companies (drops the sales/assets term, uses book equity) | Grey zone | 2.07 | ||
How the Altman Z-score works
Z = 1.2 × working capital ÷ total assets + 1.4 × retained earnings ÷ total assets + 3.3 × EBIT ÷ total assets + 0.6 × market value of equity ÷ total liabilities + 1.0 × revenue ÷ total assets (Altman, 1968). The market value of equity is the close on the last trading day of the fiscal year times weighted basic shares.
Z″ = 6.56 × working capital ÷ total assets + 3.26 × retained earnings ÷ total assets + 6.72 × EBIT ÷ total assets + 1.05 × book equity ÷ total liabilities (Altman, Hartzell and Peck, 1995), the variant for non-manufacturing and asset-light companies.
| Zone | Z | Z″ |
|---|---|---|
| Safe zone | above 2.99 | above 2.60 |
| Grey zone | 1.81–2.99 | 1.10–2.60 |
| Distress zone | below 1.81 | below 1.10 |
Not worked out for banks, insurers and REITs, whose balance sheets the model does not describe, nor when a figure is missing or there is no share price in the week to the fiscal year end.
Altman Z-score against peers
| Company | Altman Z-score |
|---|---|
| FSTR L.B. Foster Company compare | 3.9× |
| UNP Union Pacific Corporation compare | 3.8× |
| WAB Wabtec compare | 3.1× |
| CSX CSX Corporation compare | 2.3× |
| NSC Norfolk Southern Corporation | 2.3× |
| CP Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited compare | 2.1× |
| RAIL Freightcar America, Inc. compare | 2.1× |
| GBX Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (The) compare | 2.0× |
| TRN Trinity Industries, Inc. compare | 0.9× |
What Altman Z-score is
The Altman Z-Score weighs working capital, retained earnings, operating profit, market value and sales against assets and debts to gauge the risk of distress.
1.2 × working capital ÷ total assets + 1.4 × retained earnings ÷ total assets + 3.3 × EBIT ÷ total assets + 0.6 × market value of equity ÷ total liabilities + 1.0 × revenue ÷ total assets
More on NSC
- Revenue
- Net income
- EPS (diluted)
- EBITDA
- Free cash flow
- Operating cash flow
- Gross margin
- Operating margin
- Net margin
- Free cash flow margin
- P/E ratio
- P/S ratio
- P/B ratio
- Price to free cash flow
- EV/EBITDA
- EV/Sales
- EV/FCF
- Return on equity
- Return on assets
- Return on invested capital
- Debt to equity
- Current ratio
- Total debt
- Shares outstanding
- Book value per share
- Revenue growth
- Piotroski F-score
- Beneish M-score
- The full statement