Nutrien Ltd. $NTR Shares Acquired by Vanguard Group Inc.

Key Points

• Vanguard increased its stake in Nutrien by 2.2% in Q4, owning 22,463,277 shares (about 4.66%) valued at roughly $1.386 billion.
• Nutrien missed quarterly EPS estimates ($0.83 vs. $0.87) and reported revenue of $5.12 billion versus $5.26 billion expected, although revenue was up 5.1% year-over-year.
• Analysts are mixed — MarketBeat shows a consensus rating of Hold with an $80 price target, despite recent upgrades from Jefferies and Weiss and downgrades from UBS.

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR - Free Report) by 2.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,463,277 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 479,834 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 4.66% of Nutrien worth $1,386,546,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd raised its position in shares of Nutrien by 23.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 79,770 shares of the company's stock worth $4,691,000 after acquiring an additional 15,230 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,854,650 shares of the company's stock valued at $108,901,000 after purchasing an additional 25,588 shares in the last quarter. MH & Associates Securities Management Corp ADV acquired a new stake in Nutrien during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,967,000. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP grew its stake in Nutrien by 190.3% during the third quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 116,312 shares of the company's stock worth $6,829,000 after purchasing an additional 76,244 shares during the period. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC increased its holdings in Nutrien by 37.8% in the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 220,648 shares of the company's stock worth $12,958,000 after purchasing an additional 60,491 shares in the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce dropped their price target on Nutrien from $90.00 to $88.00 and set an "outperformer" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group raised Nutrien from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $96.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. UBS Group lowered Nutrien from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $63.00 to $67.00 in a report on Thursday, March 26th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Nutrien from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Nutrien from a "hold (c)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $80.00.

Nutrien Trading Up 2.6%

NYSE:NTR opened at $76.03 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.70. Nutrien Ltd. has a one year low of $53.03 and a one year high of $85.36. The company has a market cap of $36.56 billion, a PE ratio of 16.32 and a beta of 0.69. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $74.85 and a 200-day moving average of $66.52.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $5.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.26 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 8.43% and a return on equity of 8.41%. Nutrien's revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.31 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 4.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.55 per share. This is a boost from Nutrien's previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 31st. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. Nutrien's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.21%.

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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