Generali Asset Management SPA SGR Raises Stake in Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Key Points

• Generali Asset Management increased its stake in Nutrien by 70% in the fourth quarter, bringing its holdings to 47,021 shares valued at about $2.9 million.
• Nutrien’s latest quarterly results beat expectations, with EPS of $0.51 versus the $0.48 estimate and revenue of $6.05 billion, up 18.5% year over year.
• The company also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.55 per share, equal to an annualized yield of about 3.2%; meanwhile, analysts currently rate the stock a Moderate Buy on average.

Generali Asset Management SPA SGR increased its position in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR - Free Report) by 70.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 47,021 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 19,369 shares during the period. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR's holdings in Nutrien were worth $2,902,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of NTR. MGO One Seven LLC grew its stake in Nutrien by 112.7% in the 4th quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 8,536 shares of the company's stock worth $527,000 after acquiring an additional 4,523 shares during the period. CORDA Investment Management LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. CORDA Investment Management LLC. now owns 545,614 shares of the company's stock worth $33,675,000 after purchasing an additional 4,177 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 30.8% during the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 8,801 shares of the company's stock worth $543,000 after purchasing an additional 2,071 shares during the period. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 83.0% during the fourth quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 56,712 shares of the company's stock worth $3,500,000 after purchasing an additional 25,726 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tweedy Browne Co LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 21.3% during the fourth quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC now owns 17,735 shares of the company's stock worth $1,096,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTR has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Nutrien from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their target price for the company from $77.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Friday, March 13th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Nutrien from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 18th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Nutrien from $77.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Nutrien from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $63.00 to $67.00 in a report on Thursday, March 26th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $82.31.

Nutrien Price Performance

NTR stock opened at $68.37 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $32.87 billion, a PE ratio of 13.92 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $74.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $66.96. 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 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $6.05 billion for 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 company's quarterly revenue was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.11 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.09 EPS for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be issued a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 30th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. Nutrien's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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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