Probity Advisors Inc. Acquires 1,558 Shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Probity Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 7.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,181 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,558 shares during the period. Probity Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $1,066,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky bought a new position in Nutrien during the fourth quarter worth $2,726,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 54.3% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 841,144 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,620,000 after buying an additional 296,122 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Nutrien in the 4th quarter valued at about $233,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Nutrien by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,210,375 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,025,790,000 after acquiring an additional 158,161 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in Nutrien by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 14,332 shares of the company’s stock valued at $807,000 after acquiring an additional 432 shares during the period. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:NTR opened at $48.00 on Thursday. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1 year low of $44.65 and a 1 year high of $61.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $47.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.27.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $2.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.15. Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.91% and a net margin of 2.97%. The company had revenue of $10.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.53 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.54 per share. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.50%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 27th. Nutrien’s payout ratio is 126.32%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $53.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Nutrien from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $62.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. HSBC cut Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Nutrien from $68.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $66.00 to $51.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $60.67.

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.