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

Shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eighteen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $60.06.

Several brokerages recently commented on NTR. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Friday, September 20th. TD Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 9th. UBS Group cut shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $51.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, 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 note on Tuesday.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nutrien

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 15.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 13,354,385 shares of the company’s stock valued at $719,668,000 after purchasing an additional 1,794,333 shares in the last quarter. Silchester International Investors LLP raised its holdings in Nutrien by 164.4% during the 3rd quarter. Silchester International Investors LLP now owns 10,683,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $513,437,000 after buying an additional 6,642,075 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in Nutrien by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 9,006,528 shares of the company’s stock valued at $458,522,000 after buying an additional 167,312 shares during the last quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd raised its holdings in Nutrien by 8.1% during the 2nd quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 5,990,374 shares of the company’s stock valued at $304,970,000 after buying an additional 446,340 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Nutrien by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,145,375 shares of the company’s stock valued at $261,985,000 after buying an additional 399,348 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Stock Performance

NYSE NTR opened at $48.79 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $47.96 and its 200-day moving average is $49.58. Nutrien has a 12-month low of $44.65 and a 12-month high of $60.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The firm has a market cap of $24.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.80.

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 net margin of 2.79% and a return on equity of 6.99%. The business had revenue of $5.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.26 billion. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Nutrien will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.939 dividend. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.70%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is 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.