Analysts Set Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Target Price at $77.11

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty-one ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have assigned a hold recommendation and eleven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $77.3333.

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on NTR shares. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $74.00 to $96.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce boosted their price target on shares of Nutrien from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Nutrien from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $77.00 to $100.00 in a report on Friday, March 13th. Finally, UBS Group lowered shares of Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $63.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 26th.

Nutrien Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NYSE NTR opened at $76.49 on Tuesday. Nutrien has a one year low of $45.78 and a one year high of $85.36. 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 business’s fifty day moving average price is $73.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $64.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.79 billion, a PE ratio of 16.41 and a beta of 0.70.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its quarterly 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 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.31 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Nutrien will post 3.72 EPS for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be given a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 31st. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Institutional Trading of Nutrien

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NTR. Montag A & Associates Inc. boosted its stake in Nutrien by 310.7% in the 4th quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 423 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the period. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the third quarter valued at about $37,000. Sfam LLC bought a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Eastern Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 133.0% in the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 699 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 399 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 97.2% in the fourth quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 704 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.