Barings LLC Grows Position in Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Key Points

• Barings LLC increased its Nutrien stake by 70.6% in the first quarter, adding 89,517 shares to bring its total holdings to 216,325 shares valued at about $16.3 million.
• Wall Street sentiment remains constructive, with Nutrien carrying an average “Moderate Buy” rating and a consensus price target of $82.00. Recent updates included Raymond James upgrading the stock to outperform and raising its target to $90.00.
• Nutrien reported solid quarterly results, beating earnings and revenue expectations with EPS of $0.51 and revenue of $6.05 billion. The company also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.55 per share, implying a 3.3% yield.

Barings LLC raised its stake in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR - Free Report) by 70.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 216,325 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 89,517 shares during the period. Barings LLC's holdings in Nutrien were worth $16,324,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Nutrien by 440.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,338,606 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,008,713,000 after buying an additional 13,313,817 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien in the 4th quarter worth approximately $412,635,000. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 21.2% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 8,928,534 shares of the company's stock worth $551,821,000 after buying an additional 1,559,673 shares during the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP bought a new position in shares of Nutrien in the first quarter valued at approximately $99,603,000. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 5,891.2% in the fourth quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 1,240,184 shares of the company's stock valued at $76,650,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219,484 shares in the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on NTR shares. Raymond James Financial raised Nutrien from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price target for the company from $74.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Nutrien from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reduced their price objective on Nutrien from $90.00 to $88.00 and set an "outperformer" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen lowered Nutrien from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, TD Securities reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $82.00.

Nutrien Price Performance

Nutrien stock opened at $67.11 on Friday. Nutrien Ltd. has a 12 month low of $53.03 and a 12 month high of $85.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $66.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.87. The company has a market cap of $32.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.67, a PEG ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 0.62.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.30 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.84% and a net margin of 8.58%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.11 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.11 EPS for the current year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 30th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.3%. Nutrien's dividend payout ratio is 44.81%.

Nutrien Profile

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.

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