It can be pretty difficult for new investors to avoid the allure of quick, outsized gains that some of the hotter momentum plays on the market might be able to provide. Indeed, with quick potential for appreciation could come the potential for equally painful downside risks, which may be underestimated by beginner investors who are too focused on the bull-case scenario, so to speak. Indeed, focusing on the risks and downside as much as the potential upside, I think, is more than warranted, especially in a market climate that’s grown just a tad frothy in recent quarters.
Indeed, that doesn’t mean that things will have to end in pain for investors who’ve been holding on along the way. Rather, new investors should insist on paying a decent price (a fair price or a slight discount) for quality instead of chasing what’s hot at any given time. Indeed, what’s hot last week might not be after you’ve had a chance to accumulate shares.
In this piece, we’ll look at one of the best “steady build” names on the TSX Index these days. It’s not a potential “quick win” name to trade in or out of. Instead, it’s a name that you can buy and hold for 10 years at a time. And given the growing dividend, you probably won’t want to sell, even if you’re up by a considerable amount.
CN Rail
So, if you’re ready to tune out of the trading mentality (it seems like brokerages are all about encouraging “trading” rather than long-term investing these days!) and focus on a name you can buy and hold for the long haul (where real wealth is built), consider a name like CN Rail (TSX: CNR).
It’s a steady builder kind of stock that I’ve been pounding the table on because of its incredibly wide economic moat (its rail assets are irreplaceable) and its very modest multiple. In the past 52 weeks, the shares have gained more than 30%. But, in my view, the latest hint of bullishness isn’t quite over yet, especially as the name looks to give its best shot at breaking out again after its latest pullback below the $168 mark.
After a swift 9% dip, I do think that the name, which currently goes for 21.5 times trailing price-to-earnings (P/E), is more or less a fair price to pay for a company that I think will do incredibly well over the next five years after spending the last five years trailing the market with a mere 11% gain, which includes the explosive year-to-date run-up.
The railway industry has powered through headwinds like a freight train of late. And while freight volumes could take a turn (the recent action in rail stocks seems to suggest such), I do think that the worst could be in the rearview, especially when you consider that tariffs have already been baked in.
The underestimated bull case on CNR stock
Once a trade deal is inked (and I do think it’ll be just a matter of time), I’m really looking forward to the potential for CN Rail to expand upon its cross-border traffic. Add the potential for more cost-efficient locomotives into the equation, and maybe even self-driving ones way down the road (if cars can drive themselves, I see no reason trains can’t!), and I do see long-term margin upside, which, I believe, could supercharge the stock’s already-impressive dividend growth. Perhaps there is no steadier builder on the TSX Index.
Should you invest $1,000 in Canadian National Railway right now?
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* Returns as of September 8th, 2026
More reading
- Cash Feels Safe Again: This Is the Expensive Risk Investors Are Missing
- The 5 Canadian Stocks So Safe I’d Tell My Mother to Buy Them
- Exporters (Including Canadian National Railway) Face New Tariff Risk This Week: What Investors Need to Know
- U.S.-Canada Trade Talks Have Collapsed: Should You Sell Your Exporter Stocks?
- 1 Number Could Tell Investors Whether This Sell-off Is Nearly Over
Fool contributor Joey Frenette has positions in Canadian National Railway. The Motley Fool recommends Canadian National Railway. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
