CN Rail raises its dividend again

Article Excerpt

CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO. $158 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol CNR; Conservative-Growth Payer Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 671.0 million; Market cap: $106.0 billion; Dividend yield: 2.0%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.cn.ca) operates Canada’s largest railway. Its 32,200-kilometre network stretches across the country and extends to the U.S. Midwest and Gulf Coast. CN has raised its annual dividend rate each year since becoming a public entity in 1995. Starting with the March 2023 payment, the company will increase its quarterly dividend by 7.8%. Investors will then receive $0.79 a share instead of $0.7325. The new annual rate of $3.16 yields 2.0%. The company also plans to repurchase up to $4 billion of its shares over the next year. That’s in addition to the $4.82 billion it spent on buybacks under its previous authorization. CN Rail is a buy. buy. …