The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Dec. 22, edition that National Bank Financial analyst Cameron Doerksen is "staying neutral" on Canadian railway companies, expecting volume growth to remain muted into at least the early part of 2024. The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Doerksen continues to rate Canadian Pacific Kansas City "sector perform." Mr. Doerksen boosted his share target by $5 to $112. Analysts on average target the shares at $114.77. Mr. Doerksen says in a note: "We continue to view CPKC as having compelling long-term growth prospects driven by merger-driven new business wins and synergies and the long-term near-shoring trend that should boost cross-border Mexico-U.S. volumes. However, like CN, CPKC faces some volume headwinds that we think will limit near-term upside for the stock. With rail peer group valuations expanding in recent months, we increase our P/E valuation multiple to 21.0 times from 20 times previously. ... We believe a premium valuation multiple for CPKC relative to CN is justified as our forecast over the 2024-25 timeframe implies a higher EPS growth rate in both years." The Globe reported on Oct. 27, 2022, that Raymond James rated CPKC "outperform." It was then worth $96.50.