Analysts Set Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) Target Price at $119.14

Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nineteen brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $119.1360.

CNI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Canadian National Railway in a research report on Monday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $115.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Canadian National Railway in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Evercore reduced their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $105.00 to $103.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $113.88 to $117.36 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st.

Institutional Trading of Canadian National Railway

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position 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 grew its position in Canadian National Railway by 49.5% during the 4th 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. Bank of Montreal Can grew its position in 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 valued at $1,338,948,000 after purchasing an additional 42,907 shares during the last quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec grew its position in Canadian National Railway by 1.1% during the 3rd 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. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG grew its position 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 valued at $889,462,000 after purchasing an additional 1,182,106 shares during the last quarter. 80.74% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Canadian National Railway Stock Down 0.6%

NYSE:CNI opened at $109.47 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $106.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $100.64. The company has a market capitalization of $66.64 billion, a PE ratio of 20.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.47. Canadian National Railway has a 1-year low of $90.74 and a 1-year high of $113.08.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 30th. The transportation company reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.06. The firm 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 revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.82 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Canadian National Railway will post 5.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Canadian National Railway Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.915 per share. This is a positive change from Canadian National Railway’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $3.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.3%. Canadian National Railway’s payout ratio is currently 49.36%.

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.