Your 1887-self telegrammed... It's so proud of what you've become, Kansas City Southern. The historic freight train made the most of its 6,700 miles of track last quarter, hitting record revenues of $675M. Its specialty is US-Mexico trade, and it wouldn't trade that for anything right now. Shares just rose to a 3-year high.
Monthly active thieves... The train biz has to deal with vandalism because its trains are 6K feet long on average. That's why "velocity" (train speed) is crucial — It inched up 12 mph for KC Southern last quarter. Faster trains can ship more of anything (cars, food, oil) with a fixed number of boxcars and locomotives.
Geopolitics is the X-factor... KC Southern's 6% revenue jump was driven by cross-border biz with Mexico (it's got plenty of train track there). US-Mexico trade has boomed since 1995 — Cars built in Mexico have quadrupled over that period. But KC Southern's stock rides with politics:
- On Trump's inauguration day, shares hit a low of $67 after he campaigned on fighting Mexican trade.
- Today, the stock's risen to $123 as a new trade agreement has calmed cross-border econ tensions for now.