Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen
by Doug Wharley · The Cerbat GemWall Street Zen downgraded shares of Nutrien (NYSE:NTR – Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Sunday.
Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce increased their price target on shares of Nutrien from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Nutrien from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. Bank of America upped their price target on Nutrien from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $96.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, UBS Group cut Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $63.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Nutrien has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.65.
Read Our Latest Report on Nutrien
Nutrien Stock Performance
Shares of NTR stock opened at $73.65 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $74.32 and a 200 day moving average of $65.50. Nutrien has a 52 week low of $51.98 and a 52 week high of $85.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.80 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.
Nutrien (NYSE:NTR – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.04). Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 8.43%.The business had revenue of $5.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.31 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Nutrien will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current year.
Nutrien Increases Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be paid a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.21%.
Institutional Trading of Nutrien
Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 65.1% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 25,224 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,253,000 after acquiring an additional 9,950 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 6.2% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 6,907 shares of the company’s stock worth $343,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth bought a new position in shares of Nutrien in the first quarter worth about $516,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Nutrien in the first quarter worth about $54,000. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Nutrien in the second quarter worth about $203,000. 63.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Nutrien Company Profile
Nutrien Ltd. is a global fertilizer and agricultural-services company headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The company is publicly traded and operates across the farm input value chain, combining upstream fertilizer production with a broad retail and services platform aimed at supporting crop production worldwide. Nutrien’s business model integrates the manufacture and distribution of crop nutrients with on-the-ground agronomic support for growers and agricultural businesses.
Nutrien produces and supplies the three primary fertilizer nutrients—potash, nitrogen and phosphate—through its wholesale operations, and markets a wide range of crop inputs including seeds and crop protection products.