Cerity Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Cerity Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 7,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $437,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 51.3% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,853,165 shares of the company’s stock valued at $425,881,000 after acquiring an additional 2,322,679 shares during the last quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 18,312.9% in the 4th quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 1,595,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,862,000 after acquiring an additional 1,586,631 shares during the last quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 544.3% in the 3rd quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 1,361,282 shares of the company’s stock valued at $84,794,000 after acquiring an additional 1,150,000 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 15.0% in the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 7,175,994 shares of the company’s stock valued at $445,187,000 after acquiring an additional 933,517 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,369,027 shares of the company’s stock valued at $393,325,000 after acquiring an additional 849,908 shares during the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NTR opened at $52.05 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $53.20 and a 200-day moving average of $54.15. The company has a market cap of $25.74 billion, a PE ratio of 20.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.89. Nutrien Ltd. has a one year low of $47.90 and a one year high of $70.07.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.72 by ($0.35). The firm had revenue of $5.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.36 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 4.33% and a return on equity of 8.59%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 24.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.02 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a $0.54 dividend. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.15%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.38%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on NTR shares. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Nutrien from $86.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Nutrien in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Nutrien from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $58.00 to $48.00 in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler downgraded Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $54.00 in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Nutrien presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $67.95.

About Nutrien

Nutrien Ltd. provides crop inputs and services. The company operates through four segments: Retail, Potash, Nitrogen, and Phosphate. The Retail segment distributes crop nutrients, crop protection products, seeds, and merchandise products. The Potash segment provides granular and standard potash products.