The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that Raymond James analyst Steve Hansen has raised his recommendation for Canadian National Railway to "outperform" from "market perform." The Globe's Darcy Keith writes that Mr. Hansen gave his CN share target a $12 boost to $162. Mr. Hansen continues to rate Canadian Pacific Kansas City "outperform." He hiked his CPKC share target to $120 from $115. Mr. Hansen notes that rail traffic has been diverging between Canada's two major railways and macro trends in tariffs and the economy should start to benefit CN. Mr. Hansen says in a note: "Despite widespread uncertainty associated with U.S. tariff policy, Canadian rail traffic fared better-than-expected in 2Q25, with both CN and CPKC modestly exceeding our volume estimates. Growth proved highly divergent between the two carriers, with CPKC's hefty outperformance underpinned by several unique tailwinds, while CN struggled across all major categories ex-grain. Unfortunately, the incremental volume upside was more than offset by stiff forex and yield-related headwinds. Looking forward, our macro view has tilted incrementally more upbeat. ... We expect CN traffic to accelerate and CPKC traffic to remain elevated through 2H25."
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