Traders Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Nutrien (NYSE:NTR)

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Traders purchased 10,615 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 101% compared to the typical daily volume of 5,272 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTR. Root Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien in the 3rd quarter worth $37,000. Huntington National Bank lifted its holdings in Nutrien by 72.6% in the second quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 656 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Nutrien by 42.4% in the second quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 735 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares during the period. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP purchased a new position in Nutrien in the third quarter worth about $46,000. Finally, Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH purchased a new position in Nutrien in the second quarter worth about $49,000. Institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on NTR shares. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Nutrien in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $64.00 price target for the company. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Nutrien from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Nutrien from $61.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Nutrien in a research report on Monday, December 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.17.

Nutrien Stock Performance

NYSE:NTR opened at $60.69 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.71. The stock has a market cap of $29.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.36 and a beta of 0.72. Nutrien has a twelve month low of $45.78 and a twelve month high of $65.08.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $5.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 6.79% and a return on equity of 7.54%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Nutrien will post 3.72 EPS for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.545 per share. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 31st. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 58.76%.

Nutrien Company Profile

Nutrien Ltd. is a global fertilizer and agricultural-services company headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The company is publicly traded and operates across the farm input value chain, combining upstream fertilizer production with a broad retail and services platform aimed at supporting crop production worldwide. Nutrien’s business model integrates the manufacture and distribution of crop nutrients with on-the-ground agronomic support for growers and agricultural businesses.

Nutrien produces and supplies the three primary fertilizer nutrients—potash, nitrogen and phosphate—through its wholesale operations, and markets a wide range of crop inputs including seeds and crop protection products.