Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Nutrien Ltd. has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from seventeen analysts, with one sell rating, nine hold ratings, six buy ratings, and one strong buy rating.
• The average price target for Nutrien among brokers is approximately $62.65, with significant recent adjustments from firms like Goldman Sachs and Scotiabank.
• Nutrien recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.545 per share, representing an annualized dividend yield of 3.9% and a payout ratio of 78.14%.

Shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR - Get Free Report) have been given a consensus recommendation of "Hold" by the seventeen brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $62.6471.

NTR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "hold" rating and issued a $66.00 target price (up previously from $63.00) on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Nutrien from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Nutrien from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. TD Securities lifted their target price on Nutrien from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Nutrien from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nutrien

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its position in Nutrien by 0.4% during the first quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 47,329 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,349,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Blume Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Nutrien by 0.7% during the first quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 31,796 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,579,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the period. Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC raised its position in Nutrien by 0.4% during the second quarter. Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC now owns 59,035 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,438,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares during the period. Weatherly Asset Management L. P. raised its position in Nutrien by 0.7% during the second quarter. Weatherly Asset Management L. P. now owns 38,799 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,280,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares during the period. Finally, Smith Moore & CO. raised its position in Nutrien by 3.8% during the second quarter. Smith Moore & CO. now owns 7,474 shares of the company's stock valued at $435,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares during the period. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nutrien Trading Down 0.6%

NYSE NTR traded down $0.35 on Monday, hitting $56.53. The company's stock had a trading volume of 571,915 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,278,258. The firm has a market cap of $27.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.25, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $59.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.43. Nutrien has a 52-week low of $43.69 and a 52-week high of $65.08.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.41 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $10.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $10.40 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.51% and a net margin of 5.25%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.34 EPS. Research analysts predict that Nutrien will post 3.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 17th. Investors of record on Monday, September 29th will be given a $0.545 dividend. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 29th. Nutrien's payout ratio is currently 78.14%.

About Nutrien

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.