Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) Given New $65.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) had its target price boosted by Morgan Stanley from $60.00 to $65.00 in a report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on NTR. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Nutrien from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Nutrien from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. TD Securities increased their target price on shares of Nutrien from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Nutrien to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $58.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.12.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Nutrien stock opened at $58.07 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $58.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $52.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 1.22. The stock has a market cap of $28.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.81. Nutrien has a fifty-two week low of $43.70 and a fifty-two week high of $65.08.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.24). Nutrien had a net margin of 2.05% and a return on equity of 6.08%. The business had revenue of $4.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.16 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.46 EPS. Nutrien’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Nutrien will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 18th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be given a dividend of $0.545 per share. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.75%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is currently 203.74%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nutrien

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its stake in Nutrien by 94.8% during the first quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 715 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 348 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in Nutrien by 1,437.5% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 738 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 690 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. boosted its stake in Nutrien by 138.1% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 931 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 540 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in Nutrien by 117.1% during the first quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 938 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

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.