Brandes Investment Partners LP Increases Holdings in Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Brandes Investment Partners LP raised its stake in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,859,268 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 71,273 shares during the period. Brandes Investment Partners LP’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $114,755,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Montag A & Associates Inc. raised its stake in Nutrien by 310.7% during 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. Eastern Bank raised its stake in Nutrien by 133.0% during the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 399 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. raised its stake in Nutrien by 97.2% during the 4th quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 704 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in Nutrien by 42.4% during the 2nd quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 735 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fulcrum Asset Management LLP purchased a new stake in Nutrien during the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nutrien Trading Down 1.5%

NYSE:NTR opened at $66.29 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $31.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 0.60. Nutrien Ltd. has a one year low of $53.03 and a one year high of $85.36. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $71.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $69.04.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.30 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.84% and a net margin of 8.58%.Nutrien’s revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.11 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.45 EPS for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be paid a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 30th. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is 44.81%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on NTR. Zacks Research lowered shares of Nutrien from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Bank of America upgraded shares of Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Nutrien from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 18th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Nutrien from $77.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane cut shares of Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Nutrien currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.75.

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.