Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $118.9091.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on CNI shares. Barclays decreased their price target on Canadian National Railway from $140.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Stephens decreased their target price on Canadian National Railway from $105.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Canadian National Railway in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Evercore cut their price target on shares of Canadian National Railway from $105.00 to $103.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Vertical Research upgraded shares of Canadian National Railway from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Canadian National Railway

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CNI. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Canadian National Railway by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,646,922 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,437,679,000 after acquiring an additional 346,670 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd boosted its position in shares of Canadian National Railway by 49.5% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 15,745,744 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,557,309,000 after purchasing an additional 5,210,403 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in Canadian National Railway by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 14,201,675 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,338,948,000 after purchasing an additional 42,907 shares in the last quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec increased its stake in Canadian National Railway by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec now owns 13,894,922 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,310,600,000 after purchasing an additional 157,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in Canadian National Railway by 15.1% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 8,998,101 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $889,462,000 after buying an additional 1,182,106 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.74% of the company’s stock.

Canadian National Railway Stock Down 1.0%

Canadian National Railway stock opened at $109.63 on Friday. Canadian National Railway has a 52 week low of $90.74 and a 52 week high of $113.08. The stock has a market cap of $67.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.19, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.90. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $102.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $98.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

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

Canadian National Railway Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.915 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a positive change from Canadian National Railway’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. This represents a $3.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. Canadian National Railway’s payout ratio is 49.36%.

About Canadian National Railway

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.