Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Short Interest Down 45.6% in July

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totaling 5,567,872 shares, a decrease of 45.6% from the June 30th total of 10,241,667 shares. Approximately 1.2% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,472,867 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nutrien

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTR. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Nutrien by 440.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,338,606 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,008,713,000 after purchasing an additional 13,313,817 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Nutrien during the 4th quarter valued at about $412,635,000. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in Nutrien by 21.2% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 8,928,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $551,821,000 after acquiring an additional 1,559,673 shares in the last quarter. DJE Kapital AG boosted its stake in Nutrien by 1,373.6% during the first quarter. DJE Kapital AG now owns 1,534,869 shares of the company’s stock worth $116,111,000 after acquiring an additional 1,430,708 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canoe Financial LP purchased a new stake in Nutrien in the first quarter worth about $99,603,000. 63.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nutrien Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of NYSE:NTR traded up $1.15 on Wednesday, hitting $70.61. The company had a trading volume of 2,212,330 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,212,266. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $66.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $70.29. Nutrien has a 1 year low of $53.03 and a 1 year high of $85.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.38, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 0.62.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.30 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 8.58% and a return on equity of 8.84%. Nutrien’s quarterly revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.11 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Nutrien will post 5.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th were paid a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 30th. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.81%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. National Bank Financial set a $76.00 price objective on shares of Nutrien and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Weiss Ratings raised Nutrien from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on Nutrien from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. BNP Paribas Exane raised Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.84.

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.