Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Short Interest Down 18.5% in April

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR - Get Free Report) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,830,000 shares, a decrease of 18.5% from the March 31st total of 4,700,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,950,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days. Currently, 0.8% of the company's shares are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Nutrien from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Nutrien in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. They set a "buy" rating and a $62.00 target price for the company. Raymond James cut Nutrien from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $80.00 to $65.00 in a report on Friday, January 12th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Nutrien from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Nutrien from a "neutral" rating to an "underweight" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $58.00 to $48.00 in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nutrien currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $67.95.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTR. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Nutrien during the fourth quarter worth approximately $332,716,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 51.3% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,853,165 shares of the company's stock valued at $425,881,000 after purchasing an additional 2,322,679 shares during the last quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 120.2% in the 1st quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 3,780,881 shares of the company's stock valued at $205,421,000 after purchasing an additional 2,063,881 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 28.6% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 9,226,352 shares of the company's stock valued at $522,309,000 after purchasing an additional 2,050,358 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 12,017,181 shares of the company's stock valued at $676,928,000 after purchasing an additional 1,960,162 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.10% of the company's stock.

Nutrien Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE NTR traded up $0.50 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $52.55. 1,227,851 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,711,381. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Nutrien has a twelve month low of $47.90 and a twelve month high of $70.07. The company has a market cap of $25.99 billion, a PE ratio of 20.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.89. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $53.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.98.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.72 by ($0.35). Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 4.33%. The business had revenue of $5.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.36 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.02 EPS. Nutrien's revenue was down 24.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Nutrien will post 3.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.54 per share. This is a positive change from Nutrien's previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.11%. Nutrien's payout ratio is 85.38%.

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.