Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) Sees Large Volume Increase – Time to Buy?

Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) saw strong trading volume on Monday . 5,135,302 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 222% from the previous session’s volume of 1,596,689 shares.The stock last traded at $120.74 and had previously closed at $120.38.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CNI. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on Canadian National Railway from $160.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings lowered Canadian National Railway from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America raised Canadian National Railway from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $117.00 to $122.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Canadian National Railway from $113.88 to $117.36 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Canadian National Railway from $123.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $122.04.

Canadian National Railway Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $111.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $104.70. The company has a market cap of $73.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.96. 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 (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The transportation company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.31. The company 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.85 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Canadian National Railway Company will post 5.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Canadian National Railway Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Canadian National Railway

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings 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 valued at $844,353,000 after buying an additional 8,954,310 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Canadian National Railway in the 4th quarter valued at about $570,161,000. FIL Ltd grew its holdings 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 valued at $1,557,309,000 after buying an additional 5,210,403 shares during the period. Troy Asset Management Ltd grew its holdings 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 valued at $258,220,000 after buying an additional 1,680,223 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its holdings 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 valued at $164,043,000 after buying an additional 1,642,700 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.74% of the company’s stock.

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.