Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd Grows Stake in Canadian National Railway Company $CNI

Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd raised its position in shares of Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) by 11.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 104,134 shares of the transportation company’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,433 shares during the period. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Canadian National Railway were worth $9,835,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CNI. AQR Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Canadian National Railway during the first quarter worth approximately $311,000. Focus Partners Wealth increased its holdings in Canadian National Railway by 11.1% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 11,514 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,122,000 after purchasing an additional 1,146 shares during the period. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. purchased a new position in Canadian National Railway during the 2nd quarter worth $202,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its position in Canadian National Railway by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,623,400 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $168,503,000 after purchasing an additional 102,300 shares in the last quarter. 80.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Canadian National Railway Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of NYSE CNI opened at $98.46 on Friday. Canadian National Railway Company has a 1-year low of $90.74 and a 1-year high of $113.08. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $103.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $98.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $60.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.47.

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

Canadian National Railway Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be given a $0.915 dividend. This represents a $3.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This is an increase from Canadian National Railway’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. Canadian National Railway’s payout ratio is presently 49.36%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CNI. Stephens dropped their price target 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. Zacks Research upgraded Canadian National Railway from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 28th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Canadian National Railway in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Vertical Research upgraded shares of Canadian National Railway from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $140.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $118.91.

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.