Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,120,000 shares, a growth of 36.8% from the August 15th total of 2,280,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,240,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days. Currently, 0.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CNI. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Canadian National Railway from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Canadian National Railway from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Stephens dropped their price target on shares of Canadian National Railway from $127.00 to $122.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Canadian National Railway from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $146.25 to $130.67 in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Canadian National Railway from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Canadian National Railway presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.35.

Canadian National Railway Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Canadian National Railway stock traded up $0.40 during trading on Monday, hitting $119.17. The stock had a trading volume of 164,742 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,085,622. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $116.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $122.49. Canadian National Railway has a 1 year low of $103.96 and a 1 year high of $134.02. The company has a market capitalization of $75.36 billion, a PE ratio of 18.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) (TSE:CNR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The transportation company reported $1.84 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by ($0.09). Canadian National Railway had a net margin of 32.00% and a return on equity of 23.58%. The company had revenue of $4.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.31 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Canadian National Railway will post 5.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Canadian National Railway Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a $0.614 dividend. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. Canadian National Railway’s payout ratio is 39.07%.

Institutional Trading of Canadian National Railway

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CNI. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its stake in Canadian National Railway by 61.1% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 162,179 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $20,375,000 after purchasing an additional 61,498 shares during the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Canadian National Railway by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,602,728 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $201,351,000 after buying an additional 17,083 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Canadian National Railway in the 2nd quarter valued at $134,096,000. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Canadian National Railway in the 1st quarter worth about $627,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Canadian National Railway during the 4th quarter worth about $816,000. 80.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Canadian National Railway

Canadian National Railway Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the rail, intermodal, trucking, and marine transportation and logistics business in Canada and the United States. The company provides rail services, which include equipment, custom brokerage services, transloading and distribution, business development and real estate, and private car storage services; and intermodal services, such as temperature controlled cargo, port partnerships, and logistics parks.