Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI)

Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors bought 22,496 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 5,524% compared to the average volume of 400 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Canadian National Railway

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CNI. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Canadian National Railway during the first quarter valued at approximately $311,000. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its holdings in shares of Canadian National Railway by 11.1% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 11,514 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,122,000 after purchasing an additional 1,146 shares in the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Canadian National Railway in the second quarter worth $202,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of Canadian National Railway by 12.0% during the second quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 40,778 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $4,243,000 after buying an additional 4,376 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp grew its holdings in shares of Canadian National Railway by 1.9% during the second quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 6,629 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $690,000 after buying an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.74% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on Canadian National Railway from $153.00 to $151.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Barclays upped their price target on Canadian National Railway from $97.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $113.88 to $117.36 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Canadian National Railway from $119.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Stephens lowered their price objective on shares of Canadian National Railway from $105.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $115.70.

Canadian National Railway Price Performance

NYSE:CNI traded up $0.76 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $104.94. 464,248 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,713,010. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $104.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $99.24. Canadian National Railway has a 1-year low of $90.74 and a 1-year high of $113.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $64.15 billion, a PE ratio of 19.32, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.91.

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

Canadian National Railway Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.915 per share. This represents a $3.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. This is a boost from Canadian National Railway’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 10th. Canadian National Railway’s payout ratio is presently 49.36%.

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.