Short Interest in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Rises By 152.1%

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totaling 12,124,530 shares, a growth of 152.1% from the November 30th total of 4,808,680 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 3,244,227 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.7 days. Approximately 2.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Approximately 2.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 3,244,227 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.7 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank reduced their price target on Nutrien from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 10th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Nutrien from $61.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Zacks Research lowered Nutrien from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Nutrien in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Nutrien from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Nutrien currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.17.

Nutrien Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NTR traded down $0.75 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $62.80. The company had a trading volume of 1,557,662 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,692,460. Nutrien has a twelve month low of $43.69 and a twelve month high of $65.08. The stock has a market cap of $30.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.93 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.72.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.06. Nutrien had a return on equity of 7.54% and a net margin of 6.79%.The company had revenue of $5.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.39 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Nutrien will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 16th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.545 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is currently 58.76%.

Institutional Trading of Nutrien

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Nutrien by 13.4% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 403,798 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,057,000 after acquiring an additional 47,767 shares during the last quarter. Compound Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien during the 1st quarter worth $280,000. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the 1st quarter worth about $784,000. Gabelli Funds LLC increased its position in shares of Nutrien by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 52,590 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,612,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ raised its holdings in Nutrien by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ now owns 112,097 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,563,000 after buying an additional 1,327 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

About Nutrien

Nutrien Ltd. is a global fertilizer and agricultural-services company headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The company is publicly traded and operates across the farm input value chain, combining upstream fertilizer production with a broad retail and services platform aimed at supporting crop production worldwide. Nutrien’s business model integrates the manufacture and distribution of crop nutrients with on-the-ground agronomic support for growers and agricultural businesses.

Nutrien produces and supplies the three primary fertilizer nutrients—potash, nitrogen and phosphate—through its wholesale operations, and markets a wide range of crop inputs including seeds and crop protection products.