Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) Trading Up 5.8% Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) shot up 5.8% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Jefferies Financial Group upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a buy rating. Jefferies Financial Group now has a $96.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $74.00. Nutrien traded as high as $84.92 and last traded at $83.9030. 2,798,117 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 15% from the average session volume of 3,278,288 shares. The stock had previously closed at $79.31.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Nutrien from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. 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. BNP Paribas Exane lowered shares of Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. TD Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $80.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Nutrien from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.12.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nutrien

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Nutrien by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,463,277 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,386,546,000 after purchasing an additional 479,834 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Nutrien by 440.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,338,606 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,008,713,000 after buying an additional 13,313,817 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in 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 in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Nutrien by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 13,307,283 shares of the company’s stock valued at $821,326,000 after buying an additional 70,068 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in Nutrien by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 9,798,196 shares of the company’s stock worth $604,745,000 after buying an additional 189,683 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Price Performance

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $62.44. The company has a market capitalization of $40.34 billion, a PE ratio of 17.99 and a beta of 0.70. 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 released its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.26 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 8.43% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The company’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.31 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st. This is an increase from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is 46.78%.

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.