Lazard Asset Management LLC Trims Holdings in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Lazard Asset Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR - Free Report) by 87.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,432 shares of the company's stock after selling 144,123 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC's holdings in Nutrien were worth $914,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in NTR. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the 4th quarter worth $241,958,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 159.5% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 5,435,627 shares of the company's stock worth $242,976,000 after purchasing an additional 3,341,169 shares during the last quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 25.7% during the 4th quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 6,043,590 shares of the company's stock worth $270,396,000 after purchasing an additional 1,236,671 shares during the last quarter. Silchester International Investors LLP lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Silchester International Investors LLP now owns 11,693,137 shares of the company's stock worth $523,268,000 after purchasing an additional 1,009,895 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 192.7% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 411,056 shares of the company's stock worth $18,395,000 after purchasing an additional 854,543 shares during the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NTR. TD Securities upped their price objective on Nutrien from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. CIBC raised their price objective on Nutrien from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an "outperformer" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Nutrien from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Berenberg Bank raised their price objective on Nutrien from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Scotiabank cut Nutrien from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and set a $62.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $61.44.

Nutrien Price Performance

NTR traded up $0.78 during trading on Friday, hitting $59.67. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,544,142 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,142,830. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. Nutrien Ltd. has a twelve month low of $43.70 and a twelve month high of $59.83. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $53.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.79.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.24). Nutrien had a net margin of 2.62% and a return on equity of 6.81%. The business had revenue of $4.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.46 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a $0.545 dividend. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.65%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. Nutrien's payout ratio is currently 203.74%.

Nutrien Profile

Nutrien Ltd. provides crop inputs and services. The company operates through four segments: Retail, Potash, Nitrogen, and Phosphate. The Retail segment distributes crop nutrients, crop protection products, seeds, and merchandise products. The Potash segment provides granular and standard potash products.