Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) Lowered to Sell Rating by UBS Group

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) was downgraded by stock analysts at UBS Group from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday. They currently have a $67.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group’s price objective indicates a potential downside of 12.48% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on NTR. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised their target price on Nutrien from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. BNP Paribas Exane downgraded Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Morgan Stanley raised Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $70.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Barclays upped their target price on Nutrien from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $96.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $77.33.

Nutrien Price Performance

NYSE NTR opened at $76.56 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. Nutrien has a 1 year low of $45.78 and a 1 year high of $85.36. The company has a market cap of $36.83 billion, a PE ratio of 16.43 and a beta of 0.70. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $72.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $63.70.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nutrien

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Nutrien by 440.2% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,338,606 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,008,713,000 after purchasing an additional 13,313,817 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Nutrien during the 2nd quarter valued at $395,842,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 48.5% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 11,944,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $696,058,000 after purchasing an additional 3,900,755 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners acquired a new stake in shares of Nutrien in the 2nd quarter valued at $150,416,000. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in Nutrien by 21.2% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 8,928,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $551,821,000 after purchasing an additional 1,559,673 shares in the last quarter. 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.