Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. Slips on Earnings Report

After the close on Thursday, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNI) announced second-quarter earnings of $350 million, or $1 per share, compared to its year-ago profit of $433 million, or $1.20 a share, a year ago. The latest results include one-time charges that reduced earnings by 34 cents a share. Revenue for the railroad jumped nearly 17% to $4.48 billion. The consensus on the Street was for a profit of $1.32 a share on $4.42 billion in revenue.

Apparently, investors weren't impressed with the company's results since the stock has drifted more than 1% lower this afternoon and is approaching its 10-day and 20-day moving averages. These short-term trendlines had ushered the shares lower from June 10 through July 21, resulting in a loss of 15%. The stock recently popped above these moving averages, but the rally was halted at the 100 level – also the site of its 20-week trendline. Despite the stock's recent turmoil, the equity remains in a long-term uptrend along its 10-month and 20-month moving averages.

Heading into the earning report, options players were extremely skeptical of the shares. The Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio rests at 1.41, as put open interest easily outweighs call open interest among near-term options. This reading is also higher than 89% of all those taken during the past 52 weeks, indicating that investors have been more pessimistically aligned just 11% of the time during the past year.

Meanwhile, Wall Street has a slightly bearish outlook for the shares. According to Zacks, the stock has received 4 "buy" ratings" and 5 "holds."

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