Jefferies Financial Group Upgrades Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) to Buy

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $96.00 price objective on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price points to a potential upside of 21.11% from the stock’s current price.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 28th. TD Securities raised their price objective on Nutrien from $80.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Nutrien from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Nutrien from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Nutrien from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nutrien currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.12.

Nutrien Stock Up 4.2%

NYSE:NTR opened at $79.27 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. Nutrien has a twelve month low of $45.78 and a twelve month high of $79.31. The company has a market cap of $38.14 billion, a PE ratio of 17.01 and a beta of 0.70. The company’s 50 day moving average is $69.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $62.29.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.26 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 8.43%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.31 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Nutrien will post 3.72 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nutrien

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,463,277 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,386,546,000 after purchasing an additional 479,834 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Nutrien by 440.2% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,338,606 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,008,713,000 after buying an additional 13,313,817 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in Nutrien by 19.1% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 14,221,381 shares of the company’s stock valued at $834,962,000 after buying an additional 2,276,651 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Nutrien by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 13,307,283 shares of the company’s stock valued at $821,326,000 after buying an additional 70,068 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in shares of Nutrien by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 9,798,196 shares of the company’s stock worth $604,745,000 after acquiring an additional 189,683 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

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.