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Canadian Pacific RailCP.TOCOMMENTSep 16, 2015Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jun 19, 2026. Market Open.
All rails are suffering a recession, but is it over? Rails are cyclical to the Canadian economy. She feels were getting closer to a recession. She prefers CN to CP because of PE and dividend. CP's valuation reflects the Kansas City merger and its synergies, so higher. She owns no rails. She would buy CN on a dip.
The KSU acquisition gives them an advantage with its entire North American footprint. Seeing signs that entire NA freight market is tightening. Industrial side of the economy seems to be doing well, much of it due to both fiscal and AI data centre spending in USA and Canada.
Should benefit from higher commodity prices. At inflection point of strong quarterly results. A long-term hold. Yield is 0.92%.
In the midst of ongoing trade discussions, near-shoring is where we're going. Only single line in NA that runs from Canada-US-Mexico -- this is a major win for efficiency. It also has east-west, which helps with Atlantic-Pacific trade.
If energy prices are going to remain elevated, rails are much more competitive than trucking. Sector broke out in January, this pullback is a great entry point. Big cash-generating business, in early stages of a structural change. Yield is 0.83%.
Two words -- freight recession. It's been going on for over 3 years, and manufacturing has been the cause (Covid pulled demand forward, and then people spent $$ on trips and concerts). ISM Manufacturing PMI spiked unexpectedly last week. This gives the rails easy comparisons. Both should do well as manufacturing recovers.
CNR trades at a discounted PE of 17.5x. This is your name for value. Yield is 2.7% -- a meaningful premium to its 10-year average of 2%. Earnings growth of 8% expected. He'd probably choose this one on valuation, and on its intermodal business mix.
CP trades at parity with the group. Trades at 21x PE. Yield is just under 1%. Not cheap, but expected to grow faster (13% compound earnings growth over 3 years).
Owns neither, as trucking has way more cyclical leverage to a freight recovery.
This has been a roller coaster. There was some really strong performance in 2014, and it was getting way ahead of itself. There has been a pullback in the whole transportation sector. This one stumbled in Q2. Didn’t meet expectations. The sector has come back a lot. Fundamentally, the P/E ratio for the last 5 years has been about 19, and is currently trading at about 18.4. Seasonally the transportation sector tends to do well starting in October, so this is a good time to start taking a look at the railways. It may start a little bit late because of the overall drag of what has happened with the whole commodities sector passing through. Starting to look like a good opportunity.