Latest news with #UNP
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Union Pacific's Smart Capital Use Signals a Strong, Sustainable Dividend
Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP) is one of the . The company's capital investment approach focuses on strengthening its existing infrastructure to enhance safety and reliability, while also targeting specific projects to boost efficiency, productivity, and service quality. The strategy includes initiatives aimed at lowering environmental impact and improving the customer experience, all with an eye toward long-term growth. An intermodal container train winding through a rural landscape. Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP) maintains an industry-leading operating ratio and return on invested capital, with no changes to its long-term capital allocation framework. For the year, the company has outlined a $3.4 billion capital plan and expects to repurchase between $4.0 billion and $4.5 billion worth of shares. The company reliably generates strong returns from capital projects like siding extensions, new mainlines, and terminal upgrades. This disciplined approach supports Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP)'s well-regarded dividend policy. The company has paid regular dividends for 125 consecutive years and has increased its payouts for 18 straight years, drawing the attention of income-focused investors. Alongside its dividend payments, Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP) has aggressively bought back its own shares, reducing its total share count by 31% since 2015. The company currently offers a quarterly dividend of $1.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%, as of June 14. While we acknowledge the potential of UNP as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: and Disclosure. None. Sign in to access your portfolio
Scroll.in
4 days ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
How Lal Jayawardena's socialist reforms opened up the Sri Lankan economy in the mid-1970s
To the south, socialism was also in the air, as Ceylon/Sri Lanka and India each turned to the left. Ceylon had made such turns at regular intervals in the past – about every five years as the governments switched at each election between left- and right-leaning coalitions. The former were led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), which combined left-wing economic views with Sinhalese nationalism; as such they were often in power when sporadic if deadly violence erupted against the minority Tamil population. The SLFP's rival was the United National Party (UNP), in contrast, favoured a more liberal, market-oriented economy. The political oscillations created whiplash for civil servants like Lal Jayawardena. Jayawardena served in the UNP-led government in the late 1960s, landing in its Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs after leaving the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 1966. The UNP, however, was agnostic (if not downright antagonistic) about the virtues of planning. Jayawardena aspired to grab their attention through the application of analytical planning techniques, especially those he had taken from his Cambridge teacher W. B. Reddaway. He had long fastened on Reddaway's approach to planning, which amounted to an input-output table that tracked (for instance) not just how much iron a steel plant needed but also how much steel would be available for laying railway track. Reddaway had spent a year at the Indian Planning Commission trying to put his model to work, but his final report on that exercise reeked of failure; it concluded not with model outputs or economic advice – only a plea to assemble better data. Jayawardena was undeterred by Reddaway's failure in India. Nor was he overly concerned by the limited mathematical training that he shared with his teacher. He carried Reddaway's India book, heavily marked up and dog-eared, treating it as if it held profound truth of the ages; his staff expressed a similar enthusiasm, with one recalling that Reddaway's book was 'like a bible for us.'While Jayawardena was in no sense radical economically, his obsession with the Reddaway tables illustrates his desire to find a tool that could not just represent the economy abstractly but could use that representation to shape economic life. One person's bible, however, was another's heresy. Jayawardena found little interest in Colombo for the sorts of economic planning to which he aspired in the late 1960s. As he and his team laboured to fill in Reddaway tables, a top party official tried to bypass any kind of planning process by inviting the noted liberal Indian economist BR Shenoy to Colombo. Shenoy evinced a sharp opposition to planning in India – perhaps unsurprising given his membership in the freemarketeer Mont Pelerin Society. He instead recommended deregulation, a 'drastic' reduction of government spending (including even the sacrosanct food subsidies), devaluation, and privatisation of the public sector. UNP Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake favoured Shenoy's proposals over Jayawardena's. (Senanayake, who had taken over as prime minister for his father in the early 1950s, was at the helm when his cuts to food subsidies led to a protest that paralysed Colombo, and eventually to Senanayake's resignation.) Back in office in the late 1960s, DS Senanayake's government faced a series of external shocks that overpowered any policy initiatives. A general decline in commodity prices hit the country's main exports (tea, rubber, coconut), while prices for imported manufactured goods increased; as a result, the balance of payments deficit doubled in the three years after 1966. Meanwhile, higher prices for imported rice meant that food subsidies skyrocketed, spurring a sharp increase in budget deficits – 70 per cent in just a few years. UNP efforts to rein in the budget deficit by cutting the rice subsidy ultimately cost the party the 1970 election, which they lost to the Freedom Party under the leadership of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Senanayake observed bitterly that it was the second time he lost his job by 'disturbing the most cherished of the sacred cows: … the rice subsidy.' Coming into office in 1970, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party pushed both of its principal political programs: Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism as well as socialism. In an effort to quell protests by Sinhalese youth among ethnonationalist lines, Bandaranaike renamed the country, dropping the colonial name Ceylon in favour of the Sinhalese name Sri Lanka. This renaming symbolised a tense new stage in communal relations on the island; while abandoning the colonial name was in some ways a declaration of independence, opting for the Sinhalese name (instead of, for instance, the Tamil name Ilankai or Eelam) was a symbolic blow to Tamil hopes for equal treatment, not to mention a boon for recruitment into Tamil militias seeking independence from the Sinhalese majority. Although the left-wing government entering in 1971 sat at odds with Jayawardena's own views, its arrival also brought him distinct advantages. He could reasonably hope for better treatment from a left-wing government that was not allergic to planning. This new stance was visible especially in the appointment of NM Perera, an avowed Trotskyist, as the coalition's Minister of Finance. Perera declared that his goal was to build socialism, using nationalised industry as a kernel of a socialist economy – a plan much like Rehman Sobhan's vision for Bangladesh. Jayawardena's relationship with Perera reflected a contradiction: on the one hand, Jayawardena got along well and maintained a strong working relationship with his new minister. On the other hand, Jayawardena himself had little enthusiasm for socialism. Amartya Sen, in calling Jayawardena a 'liberal conservative,' suggests the difficulty of pinning down Jayawardena's economic viewpoint. In more practical terms, and much to Jayawardena's benefit, the leftward turn brought serious attention to planning. After six years at the Planning Commission, Jayawardena was finally put to work preparing Sri Lanka's first Five-Year Plan. One indication of Perera's emphasis is that when he sought outside advice on the economy, he went not to the World Bank but to the more progressive International Labour Organisation (ILO); a visiting delegation brought Cambridge classmate Richard Jolly, continuing a long tradition of Cantabrigians advising the Colombo government; Manmohan Singh and Sen had already served as official advisors. Given its leanings, the fact that the ILO team proposed a growth-first strategy suggests the ubiquity of the imperative of growth in the Global South. Overall, the ILO report diverged little from typical World Bank prescriptions, calling for reduced government spending, restrictions on consumption, and export promotion. Jayawardena outlined two routes to deal with Sri Lanka's poverty. The time-honoured SLFP practice was to 'make unemployment cheap' [i.e., manageable] through food subsidies and price controls. But Jayawardena favoured the alternative, to reduce unemployment through economic growth. Jayawardena's father agreed, criticising the subsidies as 'indiscriminate charity.' Perera endorsed these growth-first policy proposals, celebrating them under the banner of Lenin's calls for 'socialist transformation.' Perera's economic views shared much with Stalin's; he demanded that the 'full energies of the masses … be harnessed for the tasks of national reconstruction,' while at the same time calling for austerity. Explicitly favouring growth over redistribution, Perera expected about two-thirds of investible resources to come from domestic savings. His austerity sprang from radical roots rather than the World Bank's more conservative premises – but operated similarly. He called the push for high efficiency 'fundamental to the concept of socialism.' The finance minister was well aware of the challenges of this moment but saw growth as the best solution. Having already raised 'mass political expectations,' as one of his aides put it, Perera had to heed 'the imperatives of economic growth.' To those advising the finance minister to slow down, he retorted, 'There are no halting places on the path to socialism.' Some of Perera's policies fit into more conventional socialist economics. He announced programs to reduce unemployment, hoping that these would help, especially the young university-educated men who had been behind the recent ethnonationalist unrest. He pushed through a land reform program too. In response to the external shocks to the Sri Lankan economy, especially the oil crisis in 1973, Perera implemented a progressive tax policy that targeted the wealthiest taxpayers. Jayawardena himself benefited from the turmoil of the mid-1970s, as Perera had appointed him to the top economic policy position in the government, Secretary of the Treasury, before leaving office. Perera's successor undertook a number of redistributionist efforts, many of which operated specifically against residual British interests in its erstwhile colony. Jayawardena delicately tried to reassure British diplomats that some of the policies under discussion, such as nationalising the banks, 'should not be taken seriously.' Despite political differences, Jayawardena managed to navigate through Sri Lanka's socialist 1970s without losing his job.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Union Pacific's Smart Capital Use Signals a Strong, Sustainable Dividend
Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP) is one of the . The company's capital investment approach focuses on strengthening its existing infrastructure to enhance safety and reliability, while also targeting specific projects to boost efficiency, productivity, and service quality. The strategy includes initiatives aimed at lowering environmental impact and improving the customer experience, all with an eye toward long-term growth. An intermodal container train winding through a rural landscape. Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP) maintains an industry-leading operating ratio and return on invested capital, with no changes to its long-term capital allocation framework. For the year, the company has outlined a $3.4 billion capital plan and expects to repurchase between $4.0 billion and $4.5 billion worth of shares. The company reliably generates strong returns from capital projects like siding extensions, new mainlines, and terminal upgrades. This disciplined approach supports Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP)'s well-regarded dividend policy. The company has paid regular dividends for 125 consecutive years and has increased its payouts for 18 straight years, drawing the attention of income-focused investors. Alongside its dividend payments, Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP) has aggressively bought back its own shares, reducing its total share count by 31% since 2015. The company currently offers a quarterly dividend of $1.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%, as of June 14. While we acknowledge the potential of UNP as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: and Disclosure. None.
Hindustan Times
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Miguel Uribe's security was cut on day of assassination bid, says Colombia president gustavo petro
The number of security staff for Colombian presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe, seriously wounded in an assassination attempt on the weekend, was drastically cut on the day of the attack, President Gustavo Petro said Monday. "I must now report that the protection scheme for Senator Uribe was reduced, strangely, on the day of the attack, from 7 to 3 people," Petro said on X, adding he had requested the decision -- which is the responsibility of a state body -- to be investigated in full. Uribe, 39, was shot twice in the head at close range by a 15-year-old alleged hitman while campaigning in Bogota on Saturday, and is fighting for his life in hospital. The politician's lawyer Victor Mosquera said Monday he had filed a criminal complaint against the UNP protection unit in charge of security for high-profile and at-risk personalities. The lawyer said he had made more than 20 requests this year alone to have his client's security bolstered, and said the investigation by the prosecutor's office should determine "if the state, through omission, left Uribe defenseless." Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez has said authorities were investigating several possible motives for the attack. It may have been a message, he said, to Uribe's conservative party ahead of presidential elections in 2026, or an effort to destabilize the country's first-ever leftist government under Petro. The president said Monday that investigators were still 'operating in the realm of hypotheses.'
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
2 Cash-Producing Stocks Worth Investigating and 1 to Turn Down
Generating cash is essential for any business, but not all cash-rich companies are great investments. Some produce plenty of cash but fail to allocate it effectively, leading to missed opportunities. Not all companies are created equal, and StockStory is here to surface the ones with real upside. Keeping that in mind, here are two cash-producing companies that reinvest wisely to drive long-term success and one that may struggle to keep up. Trailing 12-Month Free Cash Flow Margin: 11.3% Part of the transcontinental railroad project, Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP) is a freight transportation company that operates a major railroad network. Why Are We Out on UNP? Weak unit sales over the past two years imply it may need to invest in improvements to get back on track Flat earnings per share over the last two years underperformed the sector average Free cash flow margin dropped by 6 percentage points over the last five years, implying the company became more capital intensive as competition picked up Union Pacific is trading at $219.24 per share, or 18.2x forward P/E. If you're considering UNP for your portfolio, see our FREE research report to learn more. Trailing 12-Month Free Cash Flow Margin: 21.8% Based in Tel Aviv, Fiverr (NYSE:FVRR) operates a fixed price global freelance marketplace for digital services. Why Could FVRR Be a Winner? Customer spending is rising as the company has focused on monetization over the last two years, leading to 17.4% annual growth in its average revenue per buyer Incremental sales over the last three years have been highly profitable as its earnings per share increased by 52.1% annually, topping its revenue gains Free cash flow margin expanded by 9.7 percentage points over the last few years, providing additional flexibility for investments and share buybacks/dividends Fiverr's stock price of $32.99 implies a valuation ratio of 14x forward EV/EBITDA. Is now the time to initiate a position? Find out in our full research report, it's free. Trailing 12-Month Free Cash Flow Margin: 13.8% Credited with an invention in the 1950s that improved crop yields, Valmont (NYSE:VMI) provides engineered products and infrastructure services for the agricultural industry. Why Does VMI Stand Out? Operating margin expanded by 4.9 percentage points over the last five years as it scaled and became more efficient Earnings growth has massively outpaced its peers over the last two years as its EPS has compounded at 18.7% annually Free cash flow margin increased by 7.9 percentage points over the last five years, giving the company more capital to invest or return to shareholders At $317.30 per share, Valmont trades at 17.1x forward P/E. Is now a good time to buy? See for yourself in our full research report, it's free. Market indices reached historic highs following Donald Trump's presidential victory in November 2024, but the outlook for 2025 is clouded by new trade policies that could impact business confidence and growth. While this has caused many investors to adopt a "fearful" wait-and-see approach, we're leaning into our best ideas that can grow regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate. Take advantage of Mr. Market by checking out our Top 5 Growth Stocks for this month. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 183% over the last five years (as of March 31st 2025). Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,545% between March 2020 and March 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Kadant (+351% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today for free.
