Sifting through countless of stocks in the Ground Transportation industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Canadian National Railway Company or Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Canadian National Railway Company and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Canadian National Railway Company and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited

Canadian National Railway Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the rail, intermodal, trucking, and related transportation businesses in Canada and the United States. The company provides rail services, which include equipment, customs brokerage, transloading and warehousing, business development, dimensional loads, and private railcar storage, less-than-truckload, and mexico services; intermodal services, such as temperature controlled multimodal, mobile transport trays, port partnerships, transloading and distribution, logistics parks, trucking, and supply chain services. It also offers connecting to rail, short lines, maps and network services. The company serves automotive, coal, fertilizers, temperature controlled cargo, forest products, dimensional, grain, metal and minerals, petroleum and chemicals, consumer goods, and third party logistics applications. Canadian National Railway Company was incorporated in 1919 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates a transcontinental freight railway in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The transports bulk commodities, including grain, coal, potash, fertilizers, and sulphur; merchandise freight consists of industrial and consumer products, such as forest products, energy, chemicals and plastics, metals, minerals, consumer products, and automotive; and intermodal traffic comprising retail goods in overseas containers. The company also provides rail and intermodal transportation services through a network of approximately 20,000 miles serving business centers. The company was formerly known as Canadian Pacific Railway Limited and changed its name to Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited in April 2023. Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited was founded in 1881 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Latest Ground Transportation and Canadian National Railway Company, Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited Stock News

As of September 1, 2026, Canadian National Railway Company had a $73.0 billion market capitalization, compared to the Ground Transportation median of $5.4 million. Canadian National Railway Company’s stock is up 22.9% in 2026, down 4.8% in the previous five trading days and up 24.43% in the past year.

Currently, Canadian National Railway Company’s price-earnings ratio is 22.0. Canadian National Railway Company’s trailing 12-month revenue is $12.5 billion with a 26.9% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 6.9%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $5.854 per share for the current fiscal year. Canadian National Railway Company currently has a 3.0% dividend yield.

As of September 1, 2026, Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited had a $78.4 billion market cap, putting it in the 96th percentile of all stocks. Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited’s stock is up 21.6% in 2026, down 5.5% in the previous five trading days and up 16.77% in the past year.

Currently, Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited’s price-earnings ratio is 29.4. Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited’s trailing 12-month revenue is $10.9 billion with a 25.0% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 8.1%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $3.726 per share for the current fiscal year. Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited currently has a 1.2% dividend yield.

How We Compare Canadian National Railway Company and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Canadian National Railway Company and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Canadian National Railway Company and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Canadian National Railway Company	CNI	D
Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited	CP	D

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Canadian National Railway Company has a Value Score of 32, which is Expensive. Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited has a Value Score of 31, which is Expensive.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Canadian National Railway Company or Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Canadian National Railway Company or Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited is the better investment when it comes to value.

Canadian National Railway Company and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
Canadian National Railway Company	CNI	B
Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited	CP	A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

Canadian National Railway Company has a Growth Score of 73, which is Strong. Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited has a Growth Score of 89, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited has a more attractive growth grade than Canadian National Railway Company. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Canadian National Railway Company and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
Canadian National Railway Company	CNI	C
Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited	CP	C

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

Canadian National Railway Company has a Momentum Score of 56, which is Average. Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited has a Momentum Score of 51, which is Average.

The Momentum Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Canadian National Railway Company or Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited has a strong enough Momentum Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Canadian National Railway Company or Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited is the better investment when it comes to momentum.

Other Canadian National Railway Company and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited Grades

In addition to Momentum, Growth and Value, A+ Investor also provides grades for Estimate Revisions and Quality.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the ranking of key metrics. Specifically, the quality grade is the percentile rank of the composite of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and F-Score.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Canadian National Railway Company and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Canadian National Railway Company or Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited Stock?

Overall, Canadian National Railway Company stock has a Value Score of 32, Growth Score of 73 and Momentum Score of 56.

Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited stock has a Value Score of 31, Growth Score of 89 and Momentum Score of 51.

Comparing Canadian National Railway Company and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.