Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Grows Position in Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 4.3% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 5,872,194 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 239,946 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $443,151,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Montag A & Associates Inc. increased its stake in Nutrien by 310.7% in the 4th quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 423 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien in the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. Sfam LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien in the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Eastern Bank grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 133.0% in the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 399 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harbour Investments Inc. grew 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 valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Nutrien Stock Performance

NYSE:NTR opened at $66.64 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $66.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.93. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1 year low of $53.03 and a 1 year high of $85.36. The company has a market capitalization of $31.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.57, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 0.62.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.03. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.84% and a net margin of 8.58%.The firm had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.11 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th were paid a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 30th. Nutrien’s payout ratio is currently 44.81%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on NTR shares. TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Nutrien in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Scotia upgraded Nutrien from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Mizuho decreased their target price on Nutrien from $77.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Nutrien from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Nutrien from $93.00 to $81.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nutrien currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.00.

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.