Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nineteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $62.61.

NTR has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America increased their price objective on Nutrien from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $66.00 price target (up from $63.00) on shares of Nutrien in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $68.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, June 17th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Nutrien to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Nutrien from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th.

Nutrien Stock Down 2.3%

Nutrien stock opened at $58.48 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.59. Nutrien has a fifty-two week low of $43.70 and a fifty-two week high of $65.08. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $59.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $54.15. The firm has a market cap of $28.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.80.

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

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.73%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 203.74%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nutrien

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. TD Private Client Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 9.6% during the second quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 55,486 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,227,000 after buying an additional 4,872 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its holdings in Nutrien by 137.1% during the 2nd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 214,076 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,461,000 after purchasing an additional 123,805 shares in the last quarter. Covea Finance increased its holdings in Nutrien by 16.5% during the 2nd quarter. Covea Finance now owns 73,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,265,000 after purchasing an additional 10,400 shares in the last quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Nutrien in the 2nd quarter valued at $7,092,000. Finally, Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Nutrien by 5.2% in the second quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC now owns 12,946 shares of the company’s stock worth $754,000 after purchasing an additional 643 shares in the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.