PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. Decreases Holdings in Canadian National Railway Company $CNI

PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. reduced its position in Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) by 39.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 24,990 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 16,470 shares during the period. PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd.’s holdings in Canadian National Railway were worth $2,356,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Canadian National Railway by 1.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,300,252 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,291,562,000 after purchasing an additional 372,859 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in shares of Canadian National Railway by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 14,201,675 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,338,948,000 after buying an additional 42,907 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its stake in Canadian National Railway by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 8,626,147 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $813,287,000 after acquiring an additional 35,938 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Canadian National Railway by 26.6% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,705,679 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $695,048,000 after acquiring an additional 1,408,978 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp raised its position in Canadian National Railway by 11.6% during the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 6,471,710 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $610,076,000 after acquiring an additional 671,127 shares during the last quarter. 80.74% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Vertical Research raised shares of Canadian National Railway from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised Canadian National Railway from a “hold” rating to an “outperformer” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $146.00 to $151.00 in a report on Friday, November 28th. Stephens reduced their price objective 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. Evercore dropped 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 report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Canadian National Railway from $140.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $118.91.

Canadian National Railway Price Performance

CNI opened at $106.42 on Wednesday. Canadian National Railway Company has a 1 year low of $90.74 and a 1 year high of $113.08. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $103.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $65.25 billion, a PE ratio of 19.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.67.

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. Canadian National Railway had a net margin of 27.28% and a return on equity of 22.14%. The company had revenue of $3.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.43 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.82 EPS. Canadian National Railway’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Canadian National Railway Company will post 5.52 EPS for the current year.

Canadian National Railway Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be given a $0.915 dividend. This represents a $3.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. This is a boost from Canadian National Railway’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. Canadian National Railway’s dividend payout ratio is 46.59%.

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.