Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) Rating Lowered to “Sell” at UBS Group

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) was downgraded by stock analysts at UBS Group from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $67.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $63.00. UBS Group’s target price indicates a potential downside of 11.52% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on NTR. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Nutrien from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $96.00 in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Nutrien from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Nutrien from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Nutrien from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $77.33.

Nutrien Price Performance

NYSE:NTR opened at $75.72 on Thursday. Nutrien has a 52-week low of $45.78 and a 52-week high of $85.36. The company has a market cap of $36.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.25 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 1.34. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $72.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $63.90.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.04). Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 8.43%.The firm had revenue of $5.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.26 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.31 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Nutrien will post 3.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Nutrien

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position 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 worth $1,386,546,000 after acquiring an additional 479,834 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 440.2% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,338,606 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,008,713,000 after purchasing an additional 13,313,817 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 19.1% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 14,221,381 shares of the company’s stock valued at $834,962,000 after purchasing an additional 2,276,651 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Nutrien by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 13,307,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $821,326,000 after purchasing an additional 70,068 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG grew its stake in Nutrien by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 9,798,196 shares of the company’s stock worth $604,745,000 after purchasing an additional 189,683 shares during the period. 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.