Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) Price Target Raised to $70.00 at Scotiabank

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) had its price target lifted by Scotiabank from $63.00 to $70.00 in a research report report published on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a sector perform rating on the stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $67.00 target price on shares of Nutrien in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Nutrien in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $64.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group raised their price objective on Nutrien from $58.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Nutrien in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.31.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:NTR opened at $68.68 on Monday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $63.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.60. The company has a market cap of $33.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.51 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 1.41. Nutrien has a one year low of $45.78 and a one year high of $73.07.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $5.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 6.79% and a return on equity of 7.54%. Nutrien’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.39 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Nutrien will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st were given a $0.545 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.76%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nutrien

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC raised its position in shares of Nutrien by 122.1% during the third quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC now owns 68,124 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,000,000 after purchasing an additional 37,447 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 20.2% in the 2nd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 69,551 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,051,000 after purchasing an additional 11,704 shares during the period. Sagard Holdings Management Inc. purchased a new position in Nutrien in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,511,000. IFP Advisors Inc raised its holdings in Nutrien by 12.3% during the 2nd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 52,426 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,053,000 after buying an additional 5,752 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners purchased a new stake in Nutrien during the second quarter valued at about $150,416,000. 63.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.