Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) Rating Increased to Hold at Stephens

Stephens upgraded shares of Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) to a hold rating in a research note published on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on CNI. Weiss Ratings upgraded Canadian National Railway from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on Canadian National Railway from $113.88 to $117.36 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. Bank of America increased their price objective on Canadian National Railway from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Evercore raised Canadian National Railway from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $124.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $110.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $128.40.

Canadian National Railway Stock Performance

Shares of CNI stock opened at $122.75 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $74.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.32, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.67. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $116.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $108.36. Canadian National Railway has a 52 week low of $90.74 and a 52 week high of $123.00.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The transportation company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.31. The firm had revenue of $3.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.15 billion. Canadian National Railway had a net margin of 27.22% and a return on equity of 21.90%. The business’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.85 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Canadian National Railway will post 5.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Canadian National Railway Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th were given 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 yield of 3.0%. Canadian National Railway’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.55%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Canadian National Railway

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lincluden Management Ltd. lifted its position in Canadian National Railway by 4.1% during the third quarter. Lincluden Management Ltd. now owns 434,344 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $40,717,000 after purchasing an additional 17,257 shares during the period. Kensington Investment Counsel LLC bought a new position in Canadian National Railway in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,079,000. Scharf Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Canadian National Railway during the 4th quarter worth approximately $8,283,000. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Canadian National Railway during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,174,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Canadian National Railway by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,279,778 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $225,356,000 after purchasing an additional 216,963 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.74% of the company’s stock.

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.