Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) Sets New 12-Month High – Here’s What Happened

Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) shares reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $115.98 and last traded at $115.87, with a volume of 258152 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $114.24.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CNI. 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 report on Monday, February 2nd. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Canadian National Railway from $123.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Stephens cut their price target on shares of Canadian National Railway from $105.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada raised 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. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $98.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Canadian National Railway presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $122.04.

Canadian National Railway Trading Up 2.0%

The company has a market cap of $70.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The company’s 50-day moving average is $108.41 and its 200 day moving average is $103.21.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last released 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. The company had revenue of $3.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.15 billion. Canadian National Railway had a net margin of 27.22% and a return on equity of 21.90%. The firm’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.85 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Canadian National Railway Company will post 5.76 EPS for the current year.

Canadian National Railway Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.915 per share. This represents a $3.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 9th. Canadian National Railway’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.73%.

Institutional Trading of Canadian National Railway

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Canadian National Railway by 1.4% in the fourth 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 period. FIL Ltd grew its position 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 position in shares of 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 valued at $1,338,948,000 after purchasing an additional 42,907 shares during the period. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec grew its position 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 period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC grew 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.74% of the company’s stock.

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.