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Insider Buying: The Canadian National Railway Company (TSE:CNR) President Just Bought 16% More Shares

Canadian National Railway Company (TSE:CNR) shareholders (or potential shareholders) will be happy to see that the President, Jean-Jacques Ruest, recently bought a whopping CA$4.7m worth of stock, at a price of CA$143. Aside from being a solid chunk in its own right, the deft move also saw their holding increase by some 16%.

View our latest analysis for Canadian National Railway

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Canadian National Railway

In fact, the recent purchase by Jean-Jacques Ruest was the biggest purchase of Canadian National Railway shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. That means that even when the share price was higher than CA$141 (the recent price), an insider wanted to purchase shares. It's very possible they regret the purchase, but it's more likely they are bullish about the company. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. It is generally more encouraging if they paid above the current price, as it suggests they saw value, even at higher levels.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid CA$6.1m for 44.36k shares. But insiders sold 49.11k shares worth CA$5.9m. Overall, Canadian National Railway insiders were net buyers during the last year. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

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Canadian National Railway is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.

Does Canadian National Railway Boast High Insider Ownership?

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Canadian National Railway insiders own about CA$169m worth of shares (which is 0.2% of the company). Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders.

So What Does This Data Suggest About Canadian National Railway Insiders?

The recent insider purchase is heartening. And the longer term insider transactions also give us confidence. Along with the high insider ownership, this analysis suggests that insiders are quite bullish about Canadian National Railway. Nice! So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. You'd be interested to know, that we found 1 warning sign for Canadian National Railway and we suggest you have a look.

But note: Canadian National Railway may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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