Rising profits bolster CN’s appeal

Article Excerpt

CN’s shares trade just above 19 times the company’s projected earnings per share for 2017. That seems high for a cyclical railway stock, but several factors significantly reduce CN’s risk. That’s mainly because big railways face little competition from new entrants. They also move goods much more efficiently than trucks and planes. Those factors make it easier for CN to maintain, or raise, the rates it charges customers. CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO. $102 (Toronto symbol CNR; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 752.2 million; Market cap: $76.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.0; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cn.ca) operates Canada’s largest railway. Its 32,200-kilometre network stretches across the country, and passes through the U.S. Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico. Ottawa nationalized the company in 1922, as railways were critical to Canada’s early economic growth. More than 70 years later, in 1995, CN became a publicly traded company. Commodities, such as grain, forest products, coal and…