UBS Group Downgrades Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) to Sell

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) was downgraded by stock analysts at UBS Group from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday. They presently have a $67.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group’s price objective indicates a potential downside of 12.48% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on NTR. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Nutrien from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Weiss Ratings upgraded Nutrien from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Scotiabank increased their target price on Nutrien from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Nutrien from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $77.33.

Nutrien Stock Down 0.3%

NTR opened at $76.56 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $36.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.43 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $72.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.70. Nutrien has a twelve month low of $45.78 and a twelve month high of $85.36.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $5.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.26 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 8.43% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.31 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Nutrien will post 3.72 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nutrien

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTR. Guggenheim Capital LLC increased its holdings in Nutrien by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 6,628 shares of the company’s stock valued at $409,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the period. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC now owns 9,032 shares of the company’s stock valued at $557,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Smith Moore & CO. increased its stake in Nutrien by 2.2% in the third quarter. Smith Moore & CO. now owns 7,642 shares of the company’s stock valued at $449,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Nutrien by 21.8% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 983 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares during the period. Finally, Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in Nutrien by 0.6% in the third quarter. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 30,855 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,811,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.