Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Mizuho upped their price target on Nutrien from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Nutrien from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $77.00 to $100.00 in a report on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Nutrien from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nutrien currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.33.

Nutrien Stock Performance

NYSE NTR opened at $75.41 on Friday. Nutrien has a twelve month low of $45.78 and a twelve month high of $85.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market cap of $36.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.18 and a beta of 0.69. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $73.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $64.54.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.83 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%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.31 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Nutrien will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nutrien

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTR. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Nutrien by 440.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,338,606 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,008,713,000 after purchasing an additional 13,313,817 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Nutrien in the fourth quarter valued at $412,635,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 19.1% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 14,221,381 shares of the company’s stock valued at $834,962,000 after buying an additional 2,276,651 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 21.2% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 8,928,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $551,821,000 after buying an additional 1,559,673 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp lifted its position 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 buying an additional 1,219,484 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

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.