Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Sunday.

A number of other research firms have also commented on NTR. BNP Paribas Exane lowered shares of Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on Nutrien from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Nutrien from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lifted their price objective on Nutrien from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Nutrien from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $78.50.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE NTR opened at $73.83 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $74.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.23. Nutrien has a 52 week low of $48.63 and a 52 week high of $85.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.51 billion, a PE ratio of 15.84 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 1.34.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released 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). Nutrien had a net margin of 8.43% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The company had revenue of $5.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.31 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Nutrien will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nutrien

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NTR. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Nutrien by 440.2% in the 4th 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 purchased a new stake in shares of Nutrien in the 4th quarter worth $412,635,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Nutrien by 19.1% in the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 14,221,381 shares of the company’s stock worth $834,962,000 after purchasing an additional 2,276,651 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Nutrien by 21.2% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 8,928,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $551,821,000 after purchasing an additional 1,559,673 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp increased its stake in shares of Nutrien by 5,891.2% in the 4th quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 1,240,184 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,650,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,484 shares in the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.