Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the twenty-one brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $77.1111.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on NTR shares. Mizuho upped their target price 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. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Nutrien from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $77.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Nutrien from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 18th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nutrien

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Guggenheim Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 6,628 shares of the company’s stock valued at $409,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC now owns 9,032 shares of the company’s stock valued at $557,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Smith Moore & CO. raised its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 2.2% during the third quarter. Smith Moore & CO. now owns 7,642 shares of the company’s stock valued at $449,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Nutrien by 21.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 983 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the period. Finally, Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Nutrien by 0.6% in the third quarter. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 30,855 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,811,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NTR opened at $72.92 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $72.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.70. The company has a market capitalization of $35.08 billion, a PE ratio of 15.65 and a beta of 0.70. Nutrien has a 1-year low of $45.78 and a 1-year high of $85.36.

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

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st. Nutrien’s payout ratio is 47.21%.

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.