Saia (NASDAQ:SAIA) and Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) Head-To-Head Survey

Saia (NASDAQ:SAIA) and Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Saia and Canadian National Railway’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Saia	8.19%	10.21%	7.48%
Canadian National Railway	26.92%	22.22%	8.12%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Saia and Canadian National Railway, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Saia	1	6	14	0	2.62
Canadian National Railway	0	9	9	0	2.50

Saia currently has a consensus price target of $448.37, indicating a potential upside of 35.51%. Canadian National Railway has a consensus price target of $138.21, indicating a potential upside of 14.11%. Given Saia’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Saia is more favorable than Canadian National Railway.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

80.7% of Canadian National Railway shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Saia shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of Canadian National Railway shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Saia and Canadian National Railway”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Saia	$3.39 billion	2.60	$255.04 million	$10.36	31.94
Canadian National Railway	$12.38 billion	5.91	$3.38 billion	$5.64	21.48

Canadian National Railway has higher revenue and earnings than Saia. Canadian National Railway is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Saia, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Saia has a beta of 2.14, indicating that its stock price is 114% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Canadian National Railway has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Canadian National Railway beats Saia on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Saia

Saia, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a transportation company in North America. The company provides less-than-truckload services for shipments between 100 and 10,000 pounds; and other value-added services, including non-asset truckload, expedited, and logistics services. It also offers other value-added services, including non-asset truckload, expedited, and logistics services. As of December 31, 2022, it operated 191 owned and leased facilities; and owned approximately 6,200 tractors and 20,800 trailers. The company operates 194 terminals. The company was formerly known as SCS Transportation, Inc. and changed its name to Saia, Inc. in July 2006. Saia, Inc. was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Johns Creek, Georgia.

About Canadian National Railway

Canadian National Railway Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the rail, intermodal, trucking, and marine transportation and logistics business in Canada and the United States. The company provides rail services, which include equipment, custom brokerage services, transloading and distribution, business development and real estate, and private car storage services; and intermodal services, such as temperature controlled cargo, port partnerships, and logistics parks. It offers trucking services, such as door-to-door services, import and export dray, interline services, and specialized services, comprising flatbed trucks, on-deck mobile transport trays, expedited cargo, and permit/overweight services; and supply chain services. It serves automotive, coal, fertilizers, temperature controlled cargo, forest products, dimensional, grain, metal and minerals, petroleum and chemicals, consumer goods, and third party logistics applications. The company operates a rail network of approximately 20,000 route-miles of track and shipping spanning. Canadian National Railway Company was incorporated in 1919 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.