A recent article detailed why long term investors should be bullish on CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX), a major railroad based out of Jacksonville, Florida.

For many of the same reasons, long term investors should also aboard Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC), for which should also be a profitable long term rise. It certainly has been so far:  Norfolk Southern is up for the last week, quarter, six months, and year of market action.  For 2014, Norfolk Southern has risen by 13.94 percent (chart below).

Over that same period, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up just a little more than 2 percent.

Norfolk Southern tops the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) in an important area, too: dividend income.  At present, the average dividend yield for a member of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is just under 2 percent.  For Norfolk Southern, the dividend yield is around 2.10 percent.  There is also plenty of cash to increase the dividend amount, to.

That rewards long term shareholders.

What also rewards long term investors is the projected growth ahead for Norfolk Southern.  Earnings per growth is projected to be just over 11 percent for the next five years.  That is up from just 6 percent for the previous five years.  There is obviously a very bullish trend expected in the decade ahead by Wall Street for Norfolk Southern.

The low short float shows that, too.

A short float of 5 percent is considered to be troubling for a company.  For Norfolk Southern, it is just 1.56 percent.  Few are willing to bet that the stock price will fall despite the double digit rise!