Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) Shares Down 3.9% – Here’s What Happened

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) shares fell 3.9% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $78.61 and last traded at $79.66. 919,432 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average session volume of 3,467,422 shares. The stock had previously closed at $82.85.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on NTR shares. Zacks Research lowered shares of Nutrien from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $64.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upped their target price on shares of Nutrien from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Nutrien from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $76.28.

Nutrien Stock Up 2.2%

The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.26 billion, a PE ratio of 17.06 and a beta of 0.70. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $70.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.96.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.04). Nutrien had a net margin of 8.43% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The firm had revenue of $5.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.31 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be issued a $0.55 dividend. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.21%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTR. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in Nutrien by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,854,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,901,000 after acquiring an additional 25,588 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Nutrien by 37.8% in the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 220,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,958,000 after purchasing an additional 60,491 shares in the last quarter. Colrain Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Nutrien by 35.6% in the third quarter. Colrain Capital LLC now owns 128,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,595,000 after purchasing an additional 33,650 shares during the period. Black Creek Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 57.3% during the 3rd quarter. Black Creek Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,367,244 shares of the company’s stock valued at $139,050,000 after buying an additional 862,487 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC boosted its holdings in Nutrien by 122.1% in the 3rd quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC now owns 68,124 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,000,000 after buying an additional 37,447 shares during the period. 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.