Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Decreases Stock Holdings in Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lowered its position in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 58.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 111,092 shares of the company’s stock after selling 159,231 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $8,383,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 65.1% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 25,224 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,253,000 after acquiring an additional 9,950 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 6,907 shares of the company’s stock valued at $343,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth acquired a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the 1st quarter worth about $516,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the 1st quarter worth about $54,000. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the 2nd quarter worth about $203,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group lowered their price target on Nutrien from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 11th. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Nutrien from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Berenberg Bank set a $65.00 price objective on shares of Nutrien and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Nutrien from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.84.

Nutrien Stock Up 3.2%

Shares of NYSE NTR opened at $69.52 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $33.26 billion, a PE ratio of 14.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Nutrien Ltd. has a 52-week low of $53.03 and a 52-week high of $85.36. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $66.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $70.21.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.11 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th were issued a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 30th. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 44.81%.

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.