Analysts Set Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) Price Target at $118.91

Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $115.5455.

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Stephens reduced their price target on shares of Canadian National Railway from $105.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Canadian National Railway from $153.00 to $151.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Vertical Research upgraded shares of Canadian National Railway from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Canadian National Railway in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Evercore decreased their price target on Canadian National Railway from $105.00 to $103.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 2nd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Canadian National Railway by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,646,922 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,437,679,000 after buying an additional 346,670 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd increased its position in 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 acquiring an additional 5,210,403 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can increased its position 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 valued at $1,338,948,000 after acquiring an additional 42,907 shares in the last quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec raised its stake in shares of Canadian National Railway by 1.1% in the third 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 acquiring an additional 157,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake in shares of Canadian National Railway by 15.1% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 8,998,101 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $889,462,000 after acquiring an additional 1,182,106 shares during the last quarter. 80.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Canadian National Railway Stock Performance

Canadian National Railway stock opened at $101.33 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $61.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.90. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $104.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $98.99. Canadian National Railway has a 52-week low of $90.74 and a 52-week high of $113.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.47.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 30th. The transportation company reported $1.49 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 company had revenue of $3.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.43 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.82 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Canadian National Railway will post 5.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Canadian National Railway Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a $0.915 dividend. This is an increase 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 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. Canadian National Railway’s payout ratio is presently 49.36%.

Canadian National Railway Company 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.