Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) Short Interest Up 129.3% in May

Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totaling 5,086,732 shares, a growth of 129.3% from the April 30th total of 2,217,974 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,134,369 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.5 days. Currently, 0.9% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Canadian National Railway

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CNI. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Canadian National Railway by 639,137.0% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 8,955,711 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $844,353,000 after acquiring an additional 8,954,310 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Canadian National Railway in the 4th quarter worth about $570,161,000. FIL Ltd increased its stake in Canadian National Railway by 49.5% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 15,745,744 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,557,309,000 after acquiring an additional 5,210,403 shares during the last quarter. Troy Asset Management Ltd increased its stake in Canadian National Railway by 158.8% in the 3rd quarter. Troy Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,738,372 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $258,220,000 after acquiring an additional 1,680,223 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd increased its stake in Canadian National Railway by 1,693.5% in the 3rd quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 1,739,700 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $164,043,000 after acquiring an additional 1,642,700 shares during the last quarter. 80.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Canadian National Railway Stock Performance

Shares of CNI traded up $0.85 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $119.40. The stock had a trading volume of 1,341,838 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,084,335. The firm has a market cap of $72.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.71, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $109.99 and a 200-day moving average price of $104.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.49. Canadian National Railway has a 52 week low of $90.74 and a 52 week high of $120.01.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The transportation company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.31. The firm had revenue of $3.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.15 billion. Canadian National Railway had a return on equity of 21.90% and a net margin of 27.22%.The business’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.85 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Canadian National Railway will post 5.76 EPS for the current year.

Canadian National Railway Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.915 per share. This represents a $3.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 9th. Canadian National Railway’s payout ratio is presently 48.73%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on CNI. Evercore reduced their price objective on Canadian National Railway from $105.00 to $103.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Barclays raised their price objective on Canadian National Railway from $98.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Canadian National Railway from $160.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Stephens cut their target price on Canadian National Railway from $105.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Canadian National Railway from $123.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research 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. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $122.04.

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.