Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and ten have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $58.67.

NTR has been the topic of several research reports. CIBC restated an “outperformer” rating and set a $55.00 price target (down from $60.00) on shares of Nutrien in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Raymond James upgraded Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $58.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Nutrien from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on Nutrien in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group cut Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $51.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th.

Institutional Trading of Nutrien

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Goodman Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 4.6% in the third quarter. Goodman Financial Corp now owns 253,860 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,201,000 after acquiring an additional 11,058 shares during the period. CORDA Investment Management LLC. grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 7.0% in the third quarter. CORDA Investment Management LLC. now owns 494,745 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,777,000 after acquiring an additional 32,541 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Nutrien by 10.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,742,351 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,812,000 after purchasing an additional 157,932 shares during the period. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Nutrien by 4.3% during the third quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. now owns 564,078 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,139,000 after purchasing an additional 23,117 shares during the period. Finally, Stephens Inc. AR grew its holdings in Nutrien by 335.0% during the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 70,301 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,379,000 after purchasing an additional 54,138 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Trading Down 0.4 %

NTR opened at $52.57 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. Nutrien has a 52 week low of $43.69 and a 52 week high of $60.87. The stock has a market cap of $25.81 billion, a PE ratio of 35.28, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.81. The business has a 50 day moving average of $47.61 and a 200-day moving average of $47.98.

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

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a $0.939 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.15%. This is a positive change from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 144.97%.

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.