Ninety One UK Ltd Lowers Stock Position in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Ninety One UK Ltd lessened its holdings in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 27.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 254,121 shares of the company’s stock after selling 94,025 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $14,387,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTR. Townsend & Associates Inc increased its stake in Nutrien by 27.8% in the 3rd quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 163,942 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,125,000 after acquiring an additional 35,690 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of Nutrien by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 6,361,084 shares of the company’s stock valued at $394,047,000 after purchasing an additional 154,159 shares during the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP increased its position in shares of Nutrien by 64.6% during the 3rd quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 75,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,690,000 after purchasing an additional 29,819 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Nutrien by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 9,262,659 shares of the company’s stock valued at $572,062,000 after purchasing an additional 48,230 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in shares of Nutrien by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 14,708,135 shares of the company’s stock valued at $908,374,000 after purchasing an additional 214,299 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE NTR opened at $52.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.89. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1-year low of $47.90 and a 1-year high of $73.41. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $52.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $54.36.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by ($0.35). The company had revenue of $5.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.36 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 4.33%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a dividend of $0.54 per share. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is 85.38%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on NTR. HSBC cut their target price on Nutrien from $63.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Nutrien from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Raymond James cut Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $65.00 in a report on Friday, January 12th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Nutrien in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price objective for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $58.00 to $48.00 in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Nutrien has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $67.95.

Nutrien Profile

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.