Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $72.2353.

NTR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Nutrien in a report on Monday, December 29th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $60.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Nutrien from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Nutrien from $64.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nutrien

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Nutrien by 37.8% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 220,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,958,000 after purchasing an additional 60,491 shares during the period. Colrain Capital LLC boosted its stake in Nutrien by 35.6% in the 3rd quarter. Colrain Capital LLC now owns 128,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,595,000 after purchasing an additional 33,650 shares during the period. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC boosted its stake in Nutrien by 122.1% in the 3rd quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC now owns 68,124 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,000,000 after purchasing an additional 37,447 shares during the period. Sagard Holdings Management Inc. acquired a new position in Nutrien in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,511,000. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Nutrien by 20.2% during the 2nd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 69,551 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,051,000 after buying an additional 11,704 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE NTR opened at $73.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 1.34. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $67.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $61.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.19 billion, a PE ratio of 15.69 and a beta of 0.73. Nutrien has a 52 week low of $45.78 and a 52 week high of $73.55.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.04). Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 8.43%.The company had revenue of $5.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.26 billion. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.31 EPS. Analysts predict 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. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

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.