Alberta Investment Management Corp Purchases 78,900 Shares of Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Alberta Investment Management Corp lifted its position in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 13.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 687,200 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 78,900 shares during the period. Alberta Investment Management Corp’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $42,418,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NTR. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd lifted its position in Nutrien by 23.6% during the third quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 79,770 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,691,000 after purchasing an additional 15,230 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in Nutrien by 1.4% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,854,650 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,901,000 after buying an additional 25,588 shares in the last quarter. MH & Associates Securities Management Corp ADV purchased a new stake in Nutrien in the fourth quarter worth about $1,967,000. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Nutrien by 190.3% in the third quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 116,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,829,000 after buying an additional 76,244 shares during the period. Finally, Black Creek Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Nutrien by 57.3% in the third quarter. Black Creek Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,367,244 shares of the company’s stock worth $139,050,000 after buying an additional 862,487 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on NTR shares. BNP Paribas Exane downgraded Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Bank of America upgraded shares of Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Nutrien from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Nutrien from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reduced their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $90.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperformer” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.71.

Nutrien Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of NTR opened at $62.89 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.59. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1 year low of $53.03 and a 1 year high of $85.36. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $70.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.46. The firm has a market cap of $30.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 0.60.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.03. Nutrien had a net margin of 8.58% and a return on equity of 8.84%. The firm had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.11 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be paid a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 30th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 44.81%.

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.