Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Shares Acquired by Advocate Group LLC

Advocate Group LLC raised its position in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 107,515 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,545 shares during the quarter. Advocate Group LLC’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $6,058,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Nutrien during the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Legacy Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Nutrien during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Covestor Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Nutrien during the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Zions Bancorporation N.A. raised its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 55.2% during the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 301 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 904.0% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 753 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 678 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Piper Sandler cut Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $68.00 to $54.00 in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Nutrien in a research report on Tuesday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Nutrien from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Nutrien from $86.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Raymond James lowered Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $80.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Friday, January 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $69.43.

Nutrien Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NTR traded up $0.68 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $54.31. 3,274,077 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,086,837. Nutrien Ltd. has a 52-week low of $47.90 and a 52-week high of $75.29. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.23. The firm has a market cap of $26.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 1.17.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.72 by ($0.35). Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 4.33%. The firm had revenue of $5.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.02 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 24.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.54 per share. This is a positive change from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 85.38%.

Nutrien Company Profile

Nutrien Ltd. provides crop inputs and services. The company operates through four segments: Retail, Potash, Nitrogen, and Phosphate. The Retail segment distributes crop nutrients, crop protection products, seeds, and merchandise products. The Potash segment provides granular and standard potash products.