Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. Invests $76.59 Million in Canadian National Railway Company $CNI

Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 773,340 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $76,586,000. Canadian National Railway comprises about 1.3% of Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest position. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. owned approximately 0.13% of Canadian National Railway at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Lincluden Management Ltd. boosted its position in Canadian National Railway by 4.1% in the third quarter. Lincluden Management Ltd. now owns 434,344 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $40,717,000 after buying an additional 17,257 shares during the last quarter. Kensington Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new stake in Canadian National Railway in the third quarter valued at approximately $3,079,000. Scharf Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Canadian National Railway in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,283,000. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. purchased a new stake in Canadian National Railway in the third quarter valued at approximately $32,174,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Canadian National Railway by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,279,778 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $225,356,000 after buying an additional 216,963 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.74% of the company’s stock.

Canadian National Railway Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:CNI opened at $120.40 on Wednesday. Canadian National Railway Company has a 12-month low of $90.74 and a 12-month high of $122.48. The company has a market capitalization of $73.17 billion, a PE ratio of 21.89, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50 day moving average of $112.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $105.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The transportation company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.31. Canadian National Railway had a return on equity of 21.90% and a net margin of 27.22%.The company had revenue of $3.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.85 earnings per share. Canadian National Railway’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Canadian National Railway Company will post 5.76 EPS for the current year.

Canadian National Railway Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th will be issued a $0.915 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $3.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. Canadian National Railway’s payout ratio is presently 48.73%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on CNI. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upped their target price on Canadian National Railway from C$164.00 to C$182.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup upped their target price on Canadian National Railway from $123.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Barclays upped their target price on Canadian National Railway from $98.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on Canadian National Railway from $160.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on Canadian National Railway from $113.88 to $117.36 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Canadian National Railway currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $122.04.

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.