Barings LLC Increases Holdings in Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Barings LLC lifted its position in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 55.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 126,808 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 45,114 shares during the period. Barings LLC’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $7,827,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of NTR. Montag A & Associates Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 310.7% in the fourth quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 423 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the period. Eastern Bank lifted its stake in Nutrien by 133.0% in the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 699 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 399 shares during the period. Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its stake in Nutrien by 97.2% in the fourth quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 704 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Nutrien by 42.4% in the second quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 735 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares during the period. Finally, Fulcrum Asset Management LLP purchased a new stake in Nutrien in the third quarter worth about $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $74.00 to $96.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $77.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Friday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Wall Street Zen lowered Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.71.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NTR opened at $65.63 on Friday. Nutrien Ltd. has a 12 month low of $53.03 and a 12 month high of $85.36. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $71.48 and a 200-day moving average price of $69.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a market cap of $31.51 billion, a PE ratio of 13.37, a P/E/G ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 0.60.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.03. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.84% and a net margin of 8.58%.The firm had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.11 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be given a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 30th. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.81%.

About Nutrien

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.