Rathbones Group PLC Cuts Stock Position in Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Rathbones Group PLC cut its holdings in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 29.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 27,920 shares of the company’s stock after selling 11,911 shares during the period. Rathbones Group PLC’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $1,639,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in NTR. Smith Moore & CO. boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 2.2% in the third quarter. Smith Moore & CO. now owns 7,642 shares of the company’s stock worth $449,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the period. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Nutrien by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 30,855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,811,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the period. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Nutrien by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 10,535 shares of the company’s stock valued at $619,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the period. AMG National Trust Bank raised its stake in Nutrien by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 4,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $293,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the period. Finally, Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Nutrien by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC now owns 13,146 shares of the company’s stock worth $772,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on NTR. Morgan Stanley upgraded Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $68.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Nutrien from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Zacks Research cut shares of Nutrien from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Nutrien from $64.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.82.

Nutrien Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NTR opened at $75.85 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.28 and a beta of 0.70. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1 year low of $45.78 and a 1 year high of $78.08. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $68.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.04.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its 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 business had revenue of $5.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.26 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.31 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.72 earnings per share 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 given a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 31st. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. This is a positive change from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

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.