Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 4,695,577 shares, a drop of 16.5% from the February 26th total of 5,624,648 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 5,772,251 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.8 days. Approximately 1.0% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nutrien

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTR. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 79,770 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,691,000 after purchasing an additional 15,230 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,854,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,901,000 after purchasing an additional 25,588 shares during the period. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 190.3% in the 3rd quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 116,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,829,000 after purchasing an additional 76,244 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Nutrien by 37.8% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 220,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,958,000 after buying an additional 60,491 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Black Creek Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Nutrien by 57.3% during the third quarter. Black Creek Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,367,244 shares of the company’s stock worth $139,050,000 after buying an additional 862,487 shares in the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:NTR traded down $0.99 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $74.47. The stock had a trading volume of 2,109,086 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,736,138. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. Nutrien has a 12-month low of $45.78 and a 12-month high of $85.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.96 and a beta of 0.70. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.26.

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 business had revenue of $5.12 billion for 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.31 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Nutrien will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.55 per share. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 31st. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on NTR. Morgan Stanley upgraded Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lifted their target price on shares of Nutrien from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Nutrien from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. TD Securities upped their price target on shares of Nutrien from $80.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. 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 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nutrien presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $77.33.

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.