Vanguard Group Inc. Buys 372,859 Shares of Canadian National Railway Company $CNI

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 24,300,252 shares of the transportation company’s stock after acquiring an additional 372,859 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc.’s holdings in Canadian National Railway were worth $2,291,562,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV boosted its position in Canadian National Railway by 13.4% during the second quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 929 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $97,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its position in shares of Canadian National Railway by 5.3% during the second quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 2,374 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $247,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the period. ICW Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Canadian National Railway by 0.7% in the third quarter. ICW Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,525 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,558,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp lifted its stake in Canadian National Railway by 1.9% during the second quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 6,629 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $690,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Foundations Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Canadian National Railway by 1.9% in the third quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,014 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $661,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. 80.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Canadian National Railway Price Performance

Shares of CNI stock opened at $109.70 on Friday. Canadian National Railway Company has a 52-week low of $90.74 and a 52-week high of $109.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $100.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $96.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.67.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 30th. The transportation company reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $3.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.43 billion. Canadian National Railway had a net margin of 27.28% and a return on equity of 22.14%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.82 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Canadian National Railway Company will post 5.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Canadian National Railway Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a $0.915 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $3.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. This is a positive change from Canadian National Railway’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. Canadian National Railway’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.59%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on CNI shares. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Canadian National Railway from $119.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $115.00 to $116.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Vertical Research upgraded shares of Canadian National Railway from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. UBS Group downgraded Canadian National Railway from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upgraded Canadian National Railway from a “hold” rating to an “outperformer” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $146.00 to $151.00 in a research note on Friday, November 28th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $118.91.

Canadian National Railway Profile

Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE: CNI) is a Class I freight railway that operates an integrated rail network across Canada and the United States. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, CN provides long-haul freight transportation and related logistics services that connect major ports, industrial centers and inland markets throughout North America. Its transcontinental system enables cross-border movement of goods and supports supply chains that span coast-to-coast in Canada and into the central and eastern United States.

CN’s core business is the railborne transportation of a broad mix of commodities, including intermodal container traffic, forest and paper products, grain and other agricultural products, metallurgical and industrial products, petroleum and chemical products, coal and automotive shipments.