Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Short Interest Update

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 4,695,577 shares, a decline of 16.5% from the February 26th total of 5,624,648 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 5,772,251 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.8 days. Approximately 1.0% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Nutrien Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE NTR opened at $75.72 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.25 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $72.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $64.00. Nutrien has a 1 year low of $45.78 and a 1 year high of $85.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.70.

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

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be paid a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.21%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Nutrien by 440.2% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,338,606 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,008,713,000 after buying an additional 13,313,817 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Nutrien in the 2nd quarter valued at $395,842,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Nutrien by 48.5% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 11,944,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $696,058,000 after acquiring an additional 3,900,755 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in Nutrien by 21.2% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 8,928,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $551,821,000 after acquiring an additional 1,559,673 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp boosted its holdings in Nutrien by 5,891.2% during the 4th quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 1,240,184 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,650,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219,484 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Wall Street Zen lowered Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 28th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Nutrien from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. BNP Paribas Exane lowered Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Nutrien from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.33.

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.