Canadian National Railway Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:CNI)

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

Institutional Trading of Canadian National Railway

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cardinal Point Capital Management ULC grew its stake in shares of Canadian National Railway by 28.8% during the third quarter. Cardinal Point Capital Management ULC now owns 124,426 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $11,730,000 after acquiring an additional 27,857 shares in the last quarter. Lincluden Management Ltd. grew its stake in Canadian National Railway by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Lincluden Management Ltd. now owns 434,344 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $40,717,000 after purchasing an additional 17,257 shares in the last quarter. Kensington Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new stake in Canadian National Railway during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,079,000. Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in Canadian National Railway by 23.3% during the 3rd quarter. Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management Inc. now owns 83,095 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $7,834,000 after purchasing an additional 15,715 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cardinal Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Canadian National Railway by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. now owns 742,230 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $70,038,000 after purchasing an additional 10,880 shares in the last quarter. 80.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Canadian National Railway Trading Up 0.7%

Canadian National Railway stock traded up $0.76 during trading on Monday, reaching $104.94. The company had a trading volume of 464,248 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,713,010. Canadian National Railway has a 12-month low of $90.74 and a 12-month high of $113.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.67. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $104.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $99.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $64.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.32, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.91.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 30th. The transportation company reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 27.28% and a return on equity of 22.14%. Canadian National Railway’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.82 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Canadian National Railway will post 5.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Canadian National Railway Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNI has been the topic of several recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective 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. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Canadian National Railway from $113.88 to $117.36 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. UBS Group downgraded Canadian National Railway from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Canadian National Railway in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Vertical Research upgraded shares of Canadian National Railway from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $115.70.

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.