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

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eighteen analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and eleven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $58.95.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on NTR shares. Raymond James raised Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $58.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Nutrien from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $62.00 to $50.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $69.00 to $53.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, CIBC restated an “outperformer” rating and issued a $55.00 target price (down from $60.00) on shares of Nutrien in a report on Tuesday, December 10th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTR. Silchester International Investors LLP grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 164.4% in the 3rd quarter. Silchester International Investors LLP now owns 10,683,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $513,437,000 after purchasing an additional 6,642,075 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in Nutrien in the third quarter valued at $150,181,000. Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in Nutrien by 15.5% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 13,354,385 shares of the company’s stock worth $719,668,000 after acquiring an additional 1,794,333 shares in the last quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 78.8% during the third quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 2,495,282 shares of the company’s stock valued at $121,271,000 after acquiring an additional 1,100,000 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 34.0% in the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,066,629 shares of the company’s stock valued at $205,385,000 after purchasing an additional 1,032,763 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NTR opened at $44.31 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $21.82 billion, a PE ratio of 29.74, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.27. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $47.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $48.22. Nutrien has a 52 week low of $43.75 and a 52 week high of $60.87.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share 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 was down 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Nutrien will post 3.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.939 per share. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.48%. This is an increase from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 144.97%.

Nutrien Company Profile

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.