Townsend & Associates Inc Has $14.64 Million Position in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Townsend & Associates Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 58.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 259,851 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 95,909 shares during the period. Nutrien makes up about 1.8% of Townsend & Associates Inc’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Townsend & Associates Inc owned approximately 0.05% of Nutrien worth $14,637,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 51.3% in the third 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. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd lifted its position in shares of Nutrien by 18,312.9% during the 4th quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 1,595,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,862,000 after buying an additional 1,586,631 shares in the last quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 544.3% in the 3rd quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 1,361,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,794,000 after buying an additional 1,150,000 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 15.0% in the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 7,175,994 shares of the company’s stock valued at $445,187,000 after acquiring an additional 933,517 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Nutrien by 15.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,369,027 shares of the company’s stock valued at $393,325,000 after acquiring an additional 849,908 shares during the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on NTR shares. Piper Sandler cut Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Raymond James lowered shares of Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $80.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Friday, January 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $58.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $66.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Nutrien from $77.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $67.50.

Nutrien Price Performance

NYSE:NTR traded up $2.27 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $57.70. The stock had a trading volume of 2,153,215 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,959,847. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.89. Nutrien Ltd. has a one year low of $47.90 and a one year high of $69.12. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $53.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $53.62. 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 (NYSE:NTR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by ($0.35). The business had revenue of $5.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.36 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 4.33%. Nutrien’s revenue was down 24.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This is a positive change from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.74%. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 85.38%.

Nutrien Company Profile

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.