Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) Receives $137.40 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $137.3964.

A number of brokerages have commented on CNI. Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Canadian National Railway in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Canadian National Railway from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from C$182.00 to C$185.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Canadian National Railway from $124.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th.

Canadian National Railway Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE:CNI opened at $129.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $124.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $114.73. Canadian National Railway has a fifty-two week low of $90.74 and a fifty-two week high of $131.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $78.62 billion, a PE ratio of 23.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.95.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 24th. The transportation company reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.11. Canadian National Railway had a net margin of 26.92% and a return on equity of 22.22%. The business had revenue of $3.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.87 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Canadian National Railway will post 5.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Canadian National Railway Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a $0.915 dividend. This represents a $3.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. Canadian National Railway’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.34%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CNI. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $2,437,679,000 after purchasing an additional 346,670 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd increased 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 last quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec increased its holdings 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 valued at $1,310,600,000 after purchasing an additional 157,000 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Canadian National Railway by 2.0% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 9,077,518 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $934,488,000 after purchasing an additional 173,894 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its position 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 valued at $889,462,000 after purchasing an additional 1,182,106 shares during the period. 80.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.