Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nineteen research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $68.25.

NTR has been the topic of several research reports. Raymond James downgraded shares of Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $80.00 to $65.00 in a report on Friday, January 12th. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Nutrien in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 target price for the company. HSBC cut their price target on Nutrien from $63.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Nutrien from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 23rd.

Nutrien Trading Up 2.9 %

NYSE NTR opened at $54.08 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $26.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Nutrien has a 12-month low of $47.90 and a 12-month high of $70.07. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $53.94.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by ($0.35). The firm had revenue of $5.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.36 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 4.33%. The business’s revenue was down 24.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.02 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Nutrien will post 3.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a dividend of $0.54 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.99%. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is presently 85.38%.

Institutional Trading of Nutrien

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Townsend & Associates Inc boosted its stake in Nutrien by 27.8% during the 3rd quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 163,942 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,125,000 after purchasing an additional 35,690 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in Nutrien by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 6,361,084 shares of the company’s stock valued at $394,047,000 after acquiring an additional 154,159 shares in the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP raised its holdings in Nutrien by 64.6% in the 3rd quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 75,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,690,000 after acquiring an additional 29,819 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Nutrien in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,433,000. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 9,262,659 shares of the company’s stock worth $572,062,000 after purchasing an additional 48,230 shares during the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Nutrien

Nutrien Ltd. provides crop inputs and services. The company operates through four segments: Retail, Potash, Nitrogen, and Phosphate. The Retail segment distributes crop nutrients, crop protection products, seeds, and merchandise products. The Potash segment provides granular and standard potash products.