Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 35,339 Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 35,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,225,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Nutrien by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,463,277 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,386,546,000 after purchasing an additional 479,834 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew 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 valued at $1,008,713,000 after purchasing an additional 13,313,817 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Nutrien by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 13,307,283 shares of the company’s stock valued at $821,326,000 after purchasing an additional 70,068 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in shares of Nutrien by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 9,798,196 shares of the company’s stock valued at $604,745,000 after buying an additional 189,683 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of Nutrien by 21.2% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 8,928,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $551,821,000 after buying an additional 1,559,673 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of NYSE NTR opened at $72.81 on Wednesday. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1 year low of $53.03 and a 1 year high of $85.36. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $66.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $70.47. The firm has a market cap of $34.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.39.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $2.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.70 by ($0.09). Nutrien had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 8.88%. The business had revenue of $10.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.65 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Nutrien Ltd. will post 4.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 29th will be paid a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 29th. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.53%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on NTR shares. Scotiabank raised shares of Nutrien from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. TD Securities reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Nutrien from $93.00 to $81.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Nutrien from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, National Bank Financial cut their price target on Nutrien from $76.00 to $74.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 10th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nutrien currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.58.

Nutrien 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.