Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $72.2353.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. TD Securities upped their target price on shares of Nutrien from $80.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Nutrien from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on Nutrien from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 16th.

Nutrien Trading Up 0.8%

NYSE NTR opened at $73.13 on Friday. Nutrien has a one year low of $45.78 and a one year high of $73.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market cap of $35.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.69 and a beta of 0.73. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $67.06 and its 200-day moving average is $61.08.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $5.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.26 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 8.43%.Nutrien’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.31 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Nutrien will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be paid a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 31st. This is a positive change from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Institutional Trading of Nutrien

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Compound Planning Inc. boosted its holdings in Nutrien by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Compound Planning Inc. now owns 5,371 shares of the company’s stock worth $332,000 after purchasing an additional 348 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Nutrien by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,415,304 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,353,000 after buying an additional 47,798 shares during the last quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp lifted its position in Nutrien by 13.0% during the 4th quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 687,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,418,000 after buying an additional 78,900 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 6,415 shares of the company’s stock worth $396,000 after buying an additional 623 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 7,219,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $450,310,000 after buying an additional 305,458 shares during the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Nutrien

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.