Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) Reaches New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $122.60 and last traded at $121.6280, with a volume of 18505 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $121.66.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CNI shares. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Canadian National Railway from $123.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Barclays upped their target price on Canadian National Railway from $99.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Canadian National Railway from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Canadian National Railway from $110.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $128.40.

Canadian National Railway Stock Down 0.0%

The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $116.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $108.36. The firm has a market cap of $74.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.96.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 the consensus estimate of $3.15 billion. Canadian National Railway had a net margin of 27.22% and a return on equity of 21.90%. Canadian National Railway’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.85 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Canadian National Railway Company will post 5.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Canadian National Railway Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.915 per share. This represents a $3.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. Canadian National Railway’s payout ratio is 48.55%.

Institutional Trading of Canadian National Railway

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Canadian National Railway during the first quarter valued at $311,000. Focus Partners Wealth grew its position in Canadian National Railway by 11.1% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 11,514 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,122,000 after buying an additional 1,146 shares in the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. bought a new position in Canadian National Railway in the 2nd quarter valued at about $202,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Canadian National Railway by 52.1% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,118 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $116,000 after buying an additional 383 shares during the period. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Canadian National Railway by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 17,094 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,778,000 after buying an additional 474 shares during the period. 80.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.