Head to Head Review: Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) and Alstom (OTCMKTS:ALSMY)

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) and Alstom (OTCMKTS:ALSMY) are both large-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Canadian National Railway and Alstom”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Canadian National Railway	$17.20 billion	3.75	$3.25 billion	$5.13	20.06
Alstom	$19.85 billion	0.53	$160.07 million	N/A	N/A

Canadian National Railway has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Alstom.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

80.7% of Canadian National Railway shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Alstom shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.4% of Canadian National Railway shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Canadian National Railway pays an annual dividend of $2.59 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Alstom pays an annual dividend of $0.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Canadian National Railway pays out 50.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Canadian National Railway has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Canadian National Railway and Alstom, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Canadian National Railway	2	7	8	2	2.53
Alstom	1	1	0	1	2.33

Canadian National Railway presently has a consensus price target of $120.86, indicating a potential upside of 17.46%. Given Canadian National Railway’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Canadian National Railway is more favorable than Alstom.

Risk & Volatility

Canadian National Railway has a beta of 0.97, indicating that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alstom has a beta of 1.55, indicating that its share price is 55% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Canadian National Railway and Alstom’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Canadian National Railway	26.19%	22.29%	8.15%
Alstom	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Canadian National Railway beats Alstom on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Canadian National Railway

Canadian National Railway Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the rail, intermodal, trucking, and marine transportation and logistics business in Canada and the United States. The company provides rail services, which include equipment, custom brokerage services, transloading and distribution, business development and real estate, and private car storage services; and intermodal services, such as temperature controlled cargo, port partnerships, and logistics parks. It offers trucking services, such as door-to-door services, import and export dray, interline services, and specialized services, comprising flatbed trucks, on-deck mobile transport trays, expedited cargo, and permit/overweight services; and supply chain services. It serves automotive, coal, fertilizers, temperature controlled cargo, forest products, dimensional, grain, metal and minerals, petroleum and chemicals, consumer goods, and third party logistics applications. The company operates a rail network of approximately 20,000 route-miles of track and shipping spanning. Canadian National Railway Company was incorporated in 1919 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

About Alstom

Alstom SA provides solutions for rail transport industry in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Pacific, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa. The company offers rolling stock solutions comprising people movers and monorails, light rails, metros, commuter trains, regional trains, high-speed trains, and locomotives; asset optimization, cybersecurity, connectivity, digital passenger, and security and city mobility solutions; and signaling products, such as urban, mainline, and freight and mining signaling. It also provides APM, monorail, tram, metro, and main line systems; and tracklaying and track solutions, catenary free and ground feeding solutions, electrification solutions, and electromechanical equipment, as well as cybersecurity solutions. In addition, the company provides maintenance, modernization, overhaul, parts and repair, and support services. Further, it offers various components, including bogies, motors and generators, friction brakes, switchgears, gearboxes, traction and auxiliary converters, transformers, components propulsion, green traction solutions, interiors and train control and information systems, hydrogen and battery solutions, and dispen dampers. The company was founded in 1928 and is based in Saint-Ouen, France.