Brokerages Set Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) Price Target at $118.91

Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $115.5455.

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on CNI shares. Evercore lowered 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. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Canadian National Railway in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Canadian National Railway from $119.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Canadian National Railway from $97.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Stephens cut their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $105.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 2nd.

Canadian National Railway Stock Down 0.1%

CNI stock opened at $101.51 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $62.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.90. Canadian National Railway has a twelve month low of $90.74 and a twelve month high of $113.08. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $104.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $98.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 30th. The transportation company reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.43 billion. Canadian National Railway had a return on equity of 22.14% and a net margin of 27.28%.The business’s revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.82 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Canadian National Railway will post 5.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Canadian National Railway Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a $0.915 dividend. This is a positive change from Canadian National Railway’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. This represents a $3.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. Canadian National Railway’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.36%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Canadian National Railway by 1.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 346,670 shares during the period. FIL Ltd lifted its holdings 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 boosted its position in Canadian National Railway by 0.3% during the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 14,201,675 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,338,948,000 after purchasing an additional 42,907 shares during the period. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec boosted its position in Canadian National Railway by 1.1% during the third quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec now owns 13,894,922 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,310,600,000 after purchasing an additional 157,000 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in shares of Canadian National Railway by 15.1% in the fourth 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 currently owned by institutional investors.

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.