First Eagle Investment Management LLC Buys 70,068 Shares of Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Key Points

• First Eagle Investment Management increased its Nutrien stake by 70,068 shares in the fourth quarter, bringing its total holding to 13.3 million shares worth about $821.3 million.
• Analysts have been turning more positive on Nutrien, with Wells Fargo and Raymond James upgrading the stock to outperform/overweight and several firms raising price targets. The consensus rating is now Moderate Buy with a target price of $82.63.
• Nutrien reported better-than-expected quarterly results, including EPS of $0.51 on revenue of $6.05 billion, and declared a quarterly dividend of $0.55 per share, or $2.20 annually for a 3.1% yield.

First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR - Free Report) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,307,283 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 70,068 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC owned about 2.76% of Nutrien worth $821,326,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Nutrien by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,463,277 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,386,546,000 after acquiring an additional 479,834 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 19.1% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 14,221,381 shares of the company's stock worth $834,962,000 after buying an additional 2,276,651 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 16.5% during the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 7,368,861 shares of the company's stock worth $432,838,000 after buying an additional 1,043,766 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 1.7% during the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 5,539,645 shares of the company's stock worth $325,325,000 after buying an additional 95,274 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 1.5% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,509,107 shares of the company's stock worth $323,409,000 after buying an additional 78,842 shares during the period. 63.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTR has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised Nutrien from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $77.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Weiss Ratings cut Nutrien from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Nutrien from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Raymond James Financial raised Nutrien from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $74.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on Nutrien from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Monday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $82.63.

Nutrien Price Performance

NYSE:NTR opened at $71.34 on Tuesday. 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 stock's 50 day moving average price is $74.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.53 and a beta of 0.64. Nutrien Ltd. has a 12-month low of $53.03 and a 12-month high of $85.36.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.11 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be given a dividend of $0.55 per share. 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 3.1%. Nutrien's dividend payout ratio is currently 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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