Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty-one analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have issued a hold recommendation and eleven have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $77.1111.

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on NTR. Weiss Ratings raised Nutrien from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Nutrien from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $74.00 to $96.00 in a report on Thursday, March 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Nutrien from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Raymond James Financial boosted their target price on shares of Nutrien from $68.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th.

Nutrien Trading Down 2.4%

Shares of NTR opened at $72.92 on Tuesday. Nutrien has a 1-year low of $45.78 and a 1-year high of $85.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $72.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $63.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.65 and a beta of 0.70.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $5.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.26 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 8.43%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.31 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Nutrien will post 3.72 EPS for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.55 per share. This is an increase from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is 47.21%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nutrien

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 65.1% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 25,224 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,253,000 after purchasing an additional 9,950 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 6,907 shares of the company’s stock worth $343,000 after buying an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth purchased a new stake in shares of Nutrien in the 1st quarter worth approximately $516,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Nutrien during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Finally, Boston Partners bought a new position in Nutrien during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $150,416,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

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.