Nutrien Ltd. $NTR Shares Acquired by Van ECK Associates Corp

Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,854,650 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 25,588 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $108,901,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NTR. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 0.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,983,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,291,022,000 after buying an additional 80,135 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Nutrien by 48.5% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 11,944,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $696,058,000 after buying an additional 3,900,755 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 16.5% during the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 7,368,861 shares of the company’s stock valued at $432,838,000 after acquiring an additional 1,043,766 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Nutrien during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $395,842,000. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its holdings in Nutrien by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 5,539,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $325,325,000 after purchasing an additional 95,274 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Price Performance

NYSE:NTR opened at $76.10 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.70. The stock has a market cap of $36.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.33 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $69.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.17. Nutrien Ltd. has a one year low of $45.78 and a one year high of $78.08.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.04). Nutrien had a net margin of 8.43% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The company had revenue of $5.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.31 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.55 per share. This is an increase from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 31st. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. BNP Paribas Exane lowered shares of Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Nutrien from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Nutrien from $60.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Nutrien from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Nutrien from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.82.

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.