Epoch Investment Partners Inc. Sells 42,296 Shares of Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Key Points

• Epoch Investment Partners trimmed its Nutrien stake by 3.5% in the first quarter, selling 42,296 shares and leaving it with 1,160,242 shares valued at about $87.6 million.
• Analyst sentiment on Nutrien remains constructive, with a Moderate Buy consensus and an average price target of $81.89. Recent calls included upgrades from Bank of America and Raymond James, while Morgan Stanley lowered its target.
• Nutrien reported strong quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue estimates, and also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.55 per share, implying a 3.2% yield.

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. cut its stake in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR - Free Report) by 3.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,160,242 shares of the company's stock after selling 42,296 shares during the quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. owned about 0.24% of Nutrien worth $87,552,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Montag A & Associates Inc. boosted its stake in Nutrien by 310.7% in the 4th quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 423 shares of the company's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the period. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Nutrien during the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. Sfam LLC bought a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Eastern Bank increased its position in shares of Nutrien by 133.0% during the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 699 shares of the company's stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 399 shares during the period. Finally, Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 97.2% in the fourth quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 704 shares of the company's stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Bank of America raised shares of Nutrien from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $82.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Nutrien from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $74.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Nutrien from $93.00 to $81.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, National Bank Financial set a $76.00 price target on shares of Nutrien and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Nutrien currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $81.89.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Nutrien stock opened at $68.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 1.24. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $66.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $70.04. Nutrien Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $53.03 and a fifty-two week high of $85.36. The stock has a market cap of $32.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 0.62.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.84% and a net margin of 8.58%.The firm had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.11 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th were given a dividend of $0.55 per share. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 30th. Nutrien's dividend payout ratio is presently 44.81%.

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.

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