Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, August 3, 2018

Article Excerpt

CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO., $114.68, Toronto symbol CNR, operates Canada’s largest railway. Its 32,200-kilometre network stretches across the country. It also travels down through the U.S. Midwest, connecting Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. With the March 2018 payment, the company raised its quarterly dividend by 10.3%, to $0.455 a share from $0.4125. The new annual rate of $1.82 yields 1.6%. In response to severe winter weather that disrupted CN’s operations in the first quarter of 2018, the company announced new investments in its rail networks and equipment. By the end of the year, it expects to have spent a total of $3.5 billion on capital improvements—up $100 million from its earlier forecast. Actions the company has already taken have helped to clear its backlogs. As a result, revenue in the quarter ended June 30, 2018, rose 9.1%, to $3.63 billion from $3.33 billion a year earlier. That beat the consensus forecast of $3.60 billion. Most of the higher revenue came from shipping coal,…