Nutrien Ltd. $NTR Stock: New England Research & Management Inc. Lowers Stake

New England Research & Management Inc. reduced its position in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 49.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 14,815 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,235 shares during the quarter. New England Research & Management Inc.’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $1,041,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien during the 2nd quarter worth about $8,363,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP grew its holdings in Nutrien by 665.4% during the 2nd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 67,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,274,000 after purchasing an additional 59,018 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Nutrien in the 2nd quarter worth about $220,942,000. Hikari Power Ltd purchased a new stake in Nutrien in the 2nd quarter worth about $9,443,000. Finally, Andra AP fonden raised its position in Nutrien by 419.9% in the 2nd quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 141,395 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,901,000 after purchasing an additional 114,200 shares during the period. 63.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on NTR shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Nutrien from $93.00 to $81.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Scotia raised Nutrien from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. set a $85.00 price target on Nutrien and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 5th. BNP Paribas Exane raised Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 price target on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Friday, September 18th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nutrien has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.90.

Nutrien Trading Up 2.4%

Shares of NTR traded up $1.67 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $71.25. 2,682,514 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,578,794. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $73.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $70.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market cap of $33.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.42, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 0.68. Nutrien Ltd. has a 12-month low of $53.03 and a 12-month high of $85.36.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $2.61 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.70 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $10.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.44 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.88% and a net margin of 8.44%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.65 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 4.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 29th were paid a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 29th. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.53%.

About Nutrien

Nutrien Ltd. is a Canada-based provider of crop inputs, services and solutions for agricultural producers. The company produces and distributes potash, nitrogen and phosphate products, which are used to support crop nutrition and agricultural productivity. Its product portfolio also includes crop protection products, seed, farm supplies and other agronomic inputs.

Nutrien serves farmers through a broad retail network operating primarily across North and South America, Australia and other international markets.