Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) Receives $118.91 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $118.9091.

CNI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Canadian National Railway in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upgraded Canadian National Railway from a “hold” rating to an “outperformer” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $146.00 to $151.00 in a research report on Friday, November 28th. UBS Group cut Canadian National Railway from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Evercore decreased their price target on Canadian National Railway from $105.00 to $103.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Canadian National Railway from $140.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 2nd.

Canadian National Railway Price Performance

Shares of Canadian National Railway stock opened at $111.19 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $68.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.67. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $102.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $97.87. Canadian National Railway has a one year low of $90.74 and a one year high of $113.08.

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

Canadian National Railway Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.915 per share. 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 dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. Canadian National Railway’s payout ratio is presently 46.59%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Canadian National Railway

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Canadian National Railway by 1.4% during the fourth 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 period. FIL Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Canadian National Railway by 49.5% in the fourth 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 grew its stake in Canadian National Railway by 0.3% in the third 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 grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 157,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased 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 purchasing an additional 1,182,106 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.74% of the company’s stock.

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.