Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Lowers Holdings in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. reduced its holdings in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,156 shares of the company’s stock after selling 407 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $901,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its stake in shares of Nutrien by 8.3% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 4,660 shares of the company’s stock valued at $237,000 after acquiring an additional 356 shares in the last quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc grew its position in shares of Nutrien by 2.2% during the second quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 37,839 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,996,000 after buying an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Nutrien by 56.3% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,680 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,000 after buying an additional 605 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in Nutrien in the second quarter valued at approximately $14,305,000. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in Nutrien in the second quarter worth approximately $52,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on NTR shares. Piper Sandler raised shares of Nutrien from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $50.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. TD Securities cut their price target on Nutrien from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. CIBC reaffirmed an “outperformer” rating and set a $55.00 price objective (down from $60.00) on shares of Nutrien in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Nutrien from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, UBS Group cut Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $51.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.39.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NTR opened at $52.79 on Friday. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1 year low of $43.69 and a 1 year high of $60.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.81. 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 fifty day moving average is $47.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $47.96.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.04). Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.99% and a net margin of 2.79%. The firm had revenue of $5.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a $0.939 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This is an increase from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.11%. Nutrien’s payout ratio is 144.97%.

Nutrien 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.