Covea Finance Acquires 7,500 Shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Covea Finance boosted its holdings in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR - Free Report) by 13.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 63,100 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 7,500 shares during the period. Covea Finance's holdings in Nutrien were worth $3,138,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTR. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 78.2% in the 1st quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 6,078 shares of the company's stock valued at $302,000 after acquiring an additional 2,668 shares in the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Nutrien during the first quarter worth about $517,000. Seed Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Nutrien during the first quarter valued at approximately $204,000. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Nutrien by 10.0% during the first quarter. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC now owns 12,050 shares of the company's stock valued at $599,000 after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co grew its stake in Nutrien by 2.5% in the first quarter. PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co now owns 16,296 shares of the company's stock valued at $811,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas upgraded Nutrien to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Nutrien from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Nutrien from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Nutrien from $58.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, CIBC boosted their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an "outperformer" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $61.94.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE NTR traded down $1.39 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $60.95. 2,617,255 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,181,607. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $57.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $52.51. Nutrien Ltd. has a twelve month low of $43.70 and a twelve month high of $65.08.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.24). The company had revenue of $4.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.16 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 2.05% and a return on equity of 6.08%. The firm's revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.46 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.545 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.58%. Nutrien's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.