Traders Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Nutrien (NYSE:NTR)

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors acquired 12,142 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 164% compared to the average volume of 4,598 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NTR. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien in the second quarter valued at $32,000. GoalVest Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Nutrien in the first quarter valued at $35,000. Trust Co. of Vermont raised its holdings in Nutrien by 50.0% in the second quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in Nutrien by 33.3% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 932 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 233 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Andra AP fonden acquired a new stake in Nutrien in the second quarter valued at $51,000. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nutrien Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:NTR traded down $0.03 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $46.87. The stock had a trading volume of 537,275 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,909,280. Nutrien has a fifty-two week low of $44.65 and a fifty-two week high of $64.29. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $48.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $51.95. The stock has a market cap of $23.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.44, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.82. 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 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. Nutrien had a net margin of 2.97% and a return on equity of 6.91%. The firm had revenue of $10.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.53 earnings per share. Nutrien’s revenue was down 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Nutrien will post 3.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be paid a $0.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.61%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 126.32%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on NTR shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $53.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Nutrien from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of Nutrien from $66.00 to $59.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Nutrien from $68.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nutrien currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.39.

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.