Topic: How To Invest

Pat, I am contemplating buying shares of American railway Kansas City Southern in anticipation of increased traffic from Mexico. Kindly offer your opinion on this move. Thanks.

Article Excerpt

Kansas City Southern, $109.98, symbol KSU on New York (Shares outstanding: 110.2 million; Market cap: $12.1 billion; www.kcsouthern.com), is a holding company that has railroad investments in the U.S., Mexico and Panama. Its main holding is the Kansas City Southern railway, which serves the central and south-central U.S. It also owns Kansas City Southern de Mexico, which operates in that country’s northeast and central regions, as well as the port cities of Lazaro Cardenas, Tampico and Veracruz. In addition, Kansas City Southern holds 50% of the Panama Canal Railway, which ships freight, as well as offering passenger service, from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans running alongside the Panama Canal. In the three months ended March 31, 2013, Kansas City Southern’s revenue rose 1.0%, to $552.8 million from $547.5 million a year earlier. The improvement came from sales increases from automotive products (up 31%) and intermodal (up 17%). Intermodal refers to combined road and rail freight shipping—intermodal railcars can carry…