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

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the eighteen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and eleven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $60.06.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on NTR shares. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Nutrien from $68.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 16th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 9th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Nutrien from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $50.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $58.00 to $60.00 in a report on Tuesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $53.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 10th.

Institutional Trading of Nutrien

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division bought a new stake in Nutrien in the third quarter worth about $28,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new stake in Nutrien in the second quarter worth about $32,000. Andra AP fonden bought a new stake in Nutrien in the second quarter worth about $51,000. Oakworth Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Nutrien in the second quarter valued at approximately $52,000. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Nutrien in the second quarter valued at approximately $52,000. Institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Trading Up 2.1 %

NYSE:NTR opened at $48.79 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.74, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.80. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $47.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.58. Nutrien has a 12 month low of $44.65 and a 12 month high of $60.87.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $5.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.26 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.99% and a net margin of 2.79%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.35 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Nutrien will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a $0.939 dividend. This is a positive change from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.70%. Nutrien’s payout ratio is currently 144.97%.

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.