Bank of America Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) Stock

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) had its price target hoisted by stock analysts at Bank of America from $75.00 to $81.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the stock. Bank of America‘s price target points to a potential upside of 6.58% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on NTR. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $74.00 to $96.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Nutrien from $58.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Nutrien from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Nutrien from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane downgraded shares of Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Nutrien has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $77.11.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:NTR opened at $76.00 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $71.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.56 billion, a PE ratio of 16.31 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.70. Nutrien has a 12 month low of $45.78 and a 12 month high of $85.36.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $5.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.26 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 8.43% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.31 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Nutrien will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nutrien

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