Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR – Get Free Report)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Friday after Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on the stock from $75.00 to $70.00. The stock had previously closed at $54.15, but opened at $52.83. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Nutrien shares last traded at $52.96, with a volume of 326,357 shares trading hands.
Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on NTR. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Nutrien from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th. TheStreet cut Nutrien from a “b” rating to a “c” rating in a research note on Friday, November 3rd. TD Securities decreased their price objective on Nutrien from $75.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. BNP Paribas cut Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 30th. Finally, CIBC decreased their price objective on Nutrien from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.42.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTR. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Nutrien during the fourth quarter worth approximately $332,716,000. Capital International Investors acquired a new position in Nutrien during the first quarter worth approximately $521,017,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 144.8% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,204,370 shares of the company’s stock valued at $366,706,000 after purchasing an additional 3,669,500 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 51.3% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,853,165 shares of the company’s stock valued at $425,881,000 after purchasing an additional 2,322,679 shares during the period. Finally, Black Creek Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 93.2% in the second quarter. Black Creek Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,595,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $271,610,000 after purchasing an additional 2,217,035 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.77% of the company’s stock.
Nutrien Stock Performance
The firm has a market cap of $26.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $52.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $57.02.
Nutrien (NYSE:NTR – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by ($0.35). The company had revenue of $5.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.36 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 4.33% and a return on equity of 8.58%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.02 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 4.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Nutrien Increases Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a $0.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.04%. This is a positive change from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 81.82%.
Nutrien Company Profile
Nutrien Ltd. provides crop inputs and services. The company operates through Retail, Potash, Nitrogen, and Phosphate segments. The Retail segment distributes crop nutrients, crop protection products, seeds, and merchandise products. The Potash segment provides granular and standard potash products. The Nitrogen segment offers ammonia, urea, urea ammonium nitrate, industrial grade ammonium nitrate, and ammonium sulfate.