Markel Group Inc. Acquires Shares of 25,000 Canadian National Railway Company $CNI

Markel Group Inc. acquired a new position in Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 25,000 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,358,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Canadian National Railway by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,927,393 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,493,163,000 after purchasing an additional 761,454 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Canadian National Railway by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,072,540 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,255,385,000 after purchasing an additional 273,974 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of Canadian National Railway by 26.6% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,705,679 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $695,048,000 after buying an additional 1,408,978 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in Canadian National Railway by 20.1% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,296,828 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $655,768,000 after buying an additional 1,051,977 shares during the period. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp boosted its position in Canadian National Railway by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 5,800,583 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $604,025,000 after acquiring an additional 330,901 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.74% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Canadian National Railway from $148.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Canadian National Railway from $117.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 6th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $97.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Bank of America dropped their target price on Canadian National Railway from $106.00 to $102.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 29th. Finally, CIBC upgraded shares of Canadian National Railway from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $146.00 to $151.00 in a research note on Friday, November 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $117.64.

Canadian National Railway Stock Down 0.0%

Canadian National Railway stock opened at $99.84 on Tuesday. Canadian National Railway Company has a one year low of $90.74 and a one year high of $108.75. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $97.63 and a 200 day moving average of $96.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.60. The stock has a market cap of $61.34 billion, a PE ratio of 18.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.96.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The transportation company reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.15 billion. Canadian National Railway had a net margin of 26.86% and a return on equity of 21.50%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.72 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Canadian National Railway Company will post 5.52 EPS for the current year.

Canadian National Railway Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 9th were given a $0.8875 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 9th. This is a positive change from Canadian National Railway’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $3.55 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. Canadian National Railway’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.01%.

Canadian National Railway 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.