Union Pacific reports record first quarter

[JDPriestly]

4. Buffet and Hydro-fracking?

Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP), the Warren Buffett-controlled railroad with the largest track network in the U.S., reached its highest stock price ever on Friday as it shifts its business to natural gas producers from coal shipments, which are dropping.

Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific, which closed up 2.25 percent to $126.91 on Friday, has taken advantage of the boom in natural gas by shipping materials for companies that use hydraulic fracturing to extract gas, which has offset declines in coal. business. The company's fracking shipments increase 12 percent in the second quarter compared to the prior year, according to Bloomberg. The company estimated that shale shipments will grow to 400,000 carloads in 2012, according to a July earnings call, or around twice the amount shipped in the northern U.S. in 2011, said Bloomberg.

"The railroads have surprisingly benefited from the very industry responsible for the steep decline in coal shipments. The recent boom in hydraulic fracturing has resulted in railroads transporting more equipment, and petroleum products to and from shale formations for energy companies," stated Five Star Equities, a New York research firm, on Monday.

http://www.ibtimes.com/buffetts-union-pacific-rides-hydrofracking-record-high-stock-price-739018