People watch stocks for different reasons -- they're waiting for a dip in price, watching for a specific catalyst, gathering all the news and information that might affect stocks they already own, or considering a sell. Regardless of their motivation, we can better understand market sentiment by seeing who's watching what. With the Fool's free My Watchlist service, we have tens of thousands of people telling us the businesses that have, for whatever reason, piqued their interest.

With this data we have come up with a new metric, watch interest, to inform investors what stocks their peers keep tabs on in each industry. In the case of the land transportation industry, watch interest is the percentage of people keeping an eye on land transportation stocks in general who are specifically watching each company. By looking at what stocks people are most interested in in an industry, you can get ahead of the curve by finding hot stocks that you might have otherwise overlooked.

The most-watched land transportation stock is ...
Looking at the aggregate data, we see that CSX (NYSE: CSX) is above the rest in terms of watch interest and for good reason. As CAPS player aksys wrote last month:

CSX moves coal that is exported to Asia. Coal demand in Asia is growing at an astonishing pace. Coupled with strong earnings, record revenue and a dropping operating ratio, all signs point to a bright future for CSX. Now is the time to buy.

Here are the rest of the top 15 most-watched companies in the industry with their watch interest along with the stocks' CAPS rating to show the sentiment of our investing community.

 

Company

Market Cap (Millions)

CAPS Rating
(out of 5)

Watch Interest

1

CSX

$24,063

****

23.6%

2

YRC Worldwide (Nasdaq: YRCW)

$42

*

12.8%

3

Zipcar (NYSE: ZIP)

$929

**

12.6%

4

Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP)

$45,134

*****

11.5%

5

Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC)

$24,062

****

11.4%

6

Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU)

$5,725

****

3.5%

7

RailAmerica (NYSE: RA)

$681

*****

3.0%

8

Canadian Pacific Railway (NYSE: CP)

$9,853

****

2.4%

9

Avis Budget Group (NYSE: CAR)

$1,418

*

2.3%

10

Hertz Global (NYSE: HTZ)

$4,902

**

1.9%

11

Genesee & Wyoming (NYSE: GWR)

$2,170

*****

1.6%

12

Landstar System (Nasdaq: LSTR)

$1,994

****

1.4%

13

J.B. Hunt Transport Services (Nasdaq: JBHT)

$5,101

**

1.3%

14

Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (NYSE: DTG)

$1,949

*

1.2%

15

Ryder System (NYSE: R)

$2,478

***

1.1%

Source: Motley Fool, Motley Fool CAPS.

Whether you're keeping an eye on industry stalwarts like Union Pacific or are watching an up-and-comer like Zipcar, it pays to watch. We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized stock-tracking service. Click here to start now.