Union Pacific price target raised to $243 from $237 at JPMorgan

JPMorgan raised the firm’s price target on Union Pacific to $243 from $237 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares as part of a Q1 earnings preview for the transportation and logistics group. Freight demand steadily improved over the last year with more recent signs of recovering industrial activity along with continued strength in U.S. containerized imports that increased again month-over-month in March, the analyst tells investors in a research note. However, the firm says you wouldn’t know it speaking to truckload, intermodal, and brokerage companies, which face lingering excess capacity in the market, and the recent signs of net capacity gains “only add insult to injury.” JPMorgan We expects the vast majority of its coverage “will hang on to their existing guidance.”