Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Stake Trimmed by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC cut its position in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 24.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,396 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,279 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $786,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in NTR. Appian Way Asset Management LP acquired a new position in Nutrien in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,475,000. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 0.6% in the third quarter. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 308,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,839,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800 shares in the last quarter. De Lisle Partners LLP boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 28.6% in the third quarter. De Lisle Partners LLP now owns 27,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,298,000 after buying an additional 6,000 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien during the third quarter valued at $150,181,000. Finally, Blueshift Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Nutrien during the third quarter valued at $347,000. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on NTR shares. UBS Group lowered Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $51.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Raymond James raised shares of Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $58.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $69.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. CIBC reissued an “outperformer” rating and set a $55.00 target price (down previously from $60.00) on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, TD Securities dropped their price target on shares of Nutrien from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.95.

Nutrien Price Performance

Shares of Nutrien stock opened at $44.92 on Thursday. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1-year low of $44.65 and a 1-year high of $60.87. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $47.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $48.78. 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 $22.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.15, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.80.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its 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 firm had revenue of $5.35 billion for 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 firm’s revenue was down 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect 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 will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.939 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.36%. 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.