Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) Cut to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research lowered shares of Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Nutrien from $64.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Nutrien from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. TD Securities lifted their price objective on Nutrien from $80.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Nutrien from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Nutrien from $58.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.82.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Nutrien stock opened at $73.53 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.38 billion, a PE ratio of 15.78 and a beta of 0.70. Nutrien has a 1-year low of $45.78 and a 1-year high of $78.00. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $67.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.31 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Nutrien will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nutrien

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTR. Guggenheim Capital LLC boosted its position in Nutrien by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 6,628 shares of the company’s stock valued at $409,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares in the last quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC now owns 9,032 shares of the company’s stock valued at $557,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the period. Smith Moore & CO. boosted its holdings in Nutrien by 2.2% during the third quarter. Smith Moore & CO. now owns 7,642 shares of the company’s stock worth $449,000 after buying an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Nutrien by 21.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 983 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Nutrien by 0.6% in the third quarter. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 30,855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,811,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the period. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.