CSX (NYSE:CSX) Guidance Should Boost Shares

The guidance of CSX (NYSE:CSX) in their latest quarterly report should help drive the share price of the company up, although their earnings beat should be taken in light of there being an extra week for accounting purposes.

Barclays says, "CSX posted a solid fourth quarter result that was very much in line with our above consensus numbers for revenue and operating profit after adjusting for a change in reserves. We wouldn't read too much into the beat for the quarter as it appears that many published estimates did not take account of an extra week for accounting purposes this quarter. The outlook, however, is encouraging. CSX seems to be guiding toward numbers that exceed our prior above consensus estimate for 2011, helped in part by expectations for additional coal exports. We expect the shares to trade well following this announcement and expect consensus to rise considerably for 2011.

"Partially supporting that upside is guidance for 35-40mm tons of lucrative coal exports in 2011, up from 30mm transported during 2010. Given higher expectations for coal exports, we are raising our 2011 estimate to $5.00. We expect consensus to rise following this release."

Barclays reiterates an "Equalweight" rating on CSX (CSX), which was trading at $70.12, gaining $2.41, or 3.56 percent, as of 2:44 PM EST. Barclays has a price target on CSX of $82 a share.