Canadian National Railway Company (CNI) Valuation

Valuation

Model-based estimates, not advice. The DCF is the discounted-cash-flow value per share; compare it with the price, not as a target.

DCF fair value

-53.2%

$59.41

vs $127.02 price

Levered DCF

$43.32

After debt service

Piotroski score

7 / 9

Strong

Altman Z-score

2.71

Grey zone

Rating

B+

Overall 3 / 5

Ratios by fiscal year

Margins and yields are shares of revenue, equity or price; multiples are ×.

Metric	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021	FY2020	FY2019	FY2018
P/E	17.92×	20.79×	19.5×	16.07×	17.63×	28.02×	20.03×	17.17×
P/B	3.92×	4.39×	5.44×	5.18×	4.85×	5.08×	4.68×	4.23×
P/S	4.89×	5.43×	6.5×	6.47×	7.62×	7.23×	5.66×	5.21×
EV / EBITDA	11.63×	13.14×	14.16×	13.97×	14.31×	16.91×	13.1×	11.58×
Gross margin	44.9%	40.9%	42.5%	43.2%	41.9%	41.8%	40.8%	41.6%
Operating margin	38.1%	36.6%	39.2%	40.0%	38.8%	34.6%	37.5%	38.4%
Net margin	27.3%	26.1%	33.4%	29.9%	33.8%	25.7%	28.3%	30.2%
Current ratio	0.67×	0.66×	0.61×	0.84×	1.1×	0.95×	0.66×	0.78×
Debt / equity	1.01×	1.02×	0.94×	0.74×	0.57×	0.68×	0.79×	0.71×
Interest coverage	7.21×	7.01×	9.14×	12.48×	9.21×	8.62×	10.4×	11.23×
Dividend yield	2.6%	2.3%	1.9%	1.8%	1.6%	1.6%	1.8%	1.8%
Payout ratio	46.8%	48.1%	36.8%	39.2%	35.5%	46.1%	36.6%	30.8%

Key metrics by fiscal year

Metric	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021	FY2020	FY2019	FY2018
Return on equity	21.9%	21.1%	28.0%	23.9%	21.5%	18.0%	23.4%	24.5%
Return on invested capital	8.9%	8.7%	11.4%	10.8%	9.4%	8.8%	10.5%	10.8%
Return on assets	8.1%	7.8%	10.7%	10.1%	10.1%	7.9%	9.6%	10.5%
Free cash flow yield	4.0%	3.4%	3.5%	3.5%	3.7%	3.3%	2.4%	3.2%
Earnings yield	5.6%	4.8%	5.1%	4.6%	4.4%	3.5%	5.0%	5.8%
Enterprise value	$106B	$113.5B	$127.8B	$126.3B	$122.3B	$112.7B	$98.6B	$86.9B
Net debt / EBITDA	2.36×	2.43×	2.04×	1.72×	1.41×	1.91×	1.89×	1.64×
Cash conversion cycle (days)	-55	17	18	20	13	21	25	11