Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd Reduces Stake in Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Key Points

• Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd cut its Nutrien stake by 20.1% in the fourth quarter, selling 600,000 shares and leaving it with 2,385,282 shares worth about $148.2 million.
• Analysts remain generally upbeat on Nutrien, with a Moderate Buy consensus and an average price target of $81.71; recent firms have mostly kept buy/overweight views or raised targets.
• Nutrien posted stronger-than-expected quarterly results, reporting $0.51 EPS on $6.05 billion in revenue, and also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.55 per share, implying a 3.3% annualized yield.

Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lowered its stake in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR - Free Report) by 20.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,385,282 shares of the company's stock after selling 600,000 shares during the period. Nutrien makes up approximately 1.0% of Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd's investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest position. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd owned 0.50% of Nutrien worth $148,195,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 23.6% during the third quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 79,770 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,691,000 after buying an additional 15,230 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 1.4% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,854,650 shares of the company's stock valued at $108,901,000 after buying an additional 25,588 shares during the period. MH & Associates Securities Management Corp ADV purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,967,000. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 190.3% during the third quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 116,312 shares of the company's stock valued at $6,829,000 after buying an additional 76,244 shares during the period. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 37.8% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 220,648 shares of the company's stock valued at $12,958,000 after buying an additional 60,491 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTR has been the subject of a number of research reports. TD Securities reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Nutrien in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Nutrien from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Wall Street Zen lowered Nutrien from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Nutrien from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Nutrien from $77.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $81.71.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:NTR opened at $67.65 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $32.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 0.60. Nutrien Ltd. has a 52 week low of $53.03 and a 52 week high of $85.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $71.34 and a 200 day moving average of $69.17.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.30 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 8.58% and a return on equity of 8.84%. Nutrien's revenue for the quarter was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.11 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

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

Nutrien Company 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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