Canadian National Railway Company $CNI Shares Purchased by Van ECK Associates Corp

Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 240,244 shares of the transportation company’s stock after acquiring an additional 21,831 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Canadian National Railway were worth $22,651,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Canadian National Railway by 1.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,300,252 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,291,562,000 after purchasing an additional 372,859 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can increased its holdings in shares of Canadian National Railway by 0.3% during 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 buying an additional 42,907 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of Canadian National Railway by 26.6% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,705,679 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $695,048,000 after buying an additional 1,408,978 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp increased its stake in Canadian National Railway by 11.6% during the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 6,471,710 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $610,076,000 after acquiring an additional 671,127 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Canadian National Railway by 20.1% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,296,828 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $655,768,000 after purchasing an additional 1,051,977 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.74% of the company’s stock.

Canadian National Railway Stock Down 0.2%

CNI stock opened at $106.18 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $103.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $98.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $65.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.55, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.90. Canadian National Railway Company has a fifty-two week low of $90.74 and a fifty-two week high of $113.08. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 30th. The transportation company reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.43 billion. Canadian National Railway had a net margin of 27.28% and a return on equity of 22.14%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.82 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Canadian National Railway Company will post 5.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Canadian National Railway Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.915 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. 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 3.4%. Canadian National Railway’s dividend payout ratio is 49.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Vertical Research upgraded shares of Canadian National Railway from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. UBS Group lowered Canadian National Railway from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Evercore cut their price objective on Canadian National Railway from $105.00 to $103.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised shares of Canadian National Railway from a “hold” rating to an “outperformer” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $146.00 to $151.00 in a research note on Friday, November 28th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $140.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $118.91.

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.