Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on Nutrien (NYSE:NTR)

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) saw some unusual options trading on Monday. Investors bought 8,740 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 98% compared to the average daily volume of 4,425 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on NTR. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Nutrien from $55.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Nutrien from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Hsbc Global Res lowered Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Nutrien in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $60.67.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division bought a new position in shares of Nutrien during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. GoalVest Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. Trust Co. of Vermont raised its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 50.0% during the 2nd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 900 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in Nutrien by 33.3% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 932 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 233 shares during the period. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Nutrien Trading Down 1.3 %

Nutrien stock opened at $47.90 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $47.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $51.30. The company has a market cap of $23.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.82. Nutrien has a 52-week low of $44.65 and a 52-week high of $62.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

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

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 27th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.51%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is currently 126.32%.

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.