Legal & General Group Plc Acquires 174,999 Shares of Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 6.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,705,643 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 174,999 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.56% of Nutrien worth $167,223,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Montag A & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 310.7% during the fourth quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 423 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the period. Eastern Bank increased its stake in Nutrien by 133.0% in the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 399 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in Nutrien by 42.4% in the second quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 735 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP bought a new position in Nutrien in the third quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. bought a new position in Nutrien in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $51,000. 63.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce decreased their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $90.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperformer” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $74.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Zacks Research cut shares of Nutrien from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Nutrien currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.75.

Nutrien Stock Performance

NYSE NTR opened at $68.72 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $73.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.40. The stock has a market cap of $32.99 billion, a PE ratio of 14.00, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.64. Nutrien Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $53.03 and a fifty-two week high of $85.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 1.24.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.30 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 8.58% and a return on equity of 8.84%. The company’s revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.11 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.55 per share. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 30th. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 44.81%.

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.