Short Interest in Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) Declines By 53.6%

Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totaling 2,806,164 shares, a drop of 53.6% from the June 15th total of 6,044,119 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,658,988 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.7 days. Currently, 0.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Canadian National Railway

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Canadian National Railway by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,254,252 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $149,384,000 after acquiring an additional 68,791 shares during the period. Ausbil Investment Management Ltd increased its stake in Canadian National Railway by 20.7% in the second quarter. Ausbil Investment Management Ltd now owns 56,806 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $6,767,000 after purchasing an additional 9,737 shares during the period. Fulton Bank N.A. purchased a new stake in Canadian National Railway in the second quarter worth $209,000. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Canadian National Railway during the second quarter worth $226,000. Finally, Revolve Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Canadian National Railway during the second quarter worth $502,000. 80.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $160.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lifted their price target on Canadian National Railway from C$182.00 to C$185.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Canadian National Railway from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Canadian National Railway from $110.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Citizens Jmp began coverage on Canadian National Railway in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.12.

Canadian National Railway Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of Canadian National Railway stock traded down $0.71 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $124.08. The stock had a trading volume of 2,354,786 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,601,428. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $117.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $109.28. The stock has a market cap of $75.19 billion, a PE ratio of 22.56, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.49. Canadian National Railway has a 12 month low of $90.74 and a 12 month high of $126.12.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The transportation company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.31. Canadian National Railway had a net margin of 27.22% and a return on equity of 21.90%. The company had revenue of $3.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.85 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Canadian National Railway will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Canadian National Railway Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $0.915 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $3.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Canadian National Railway’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.55%.

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.