Hedges Asset Management LLC Makes New $470,000 Investment in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Hedges Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 10,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $470,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Silchester International Investors LLP raised its holdings in Nutrien by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Silchester International Investors LLP now owns 11,693,137 shares of the company’s stock valued at $523,268,000 after buying an additional 1,009,895 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in shares of Nutrien by 4.1% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,232,211 shares of the company’s stock valued at $203,380,000 after acquiring an additional 165,582 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 11.9% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 4,220,354 shares of the company’s stock worth $202,830,000 after acquiring an additional 447,413 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in shares of Nutrien in the 3rd quarter worth about $150,181,000. Finally, Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd grew its holdings in Nutrien by 78.8% during the 3rd quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 2,495,282 shares of the company’s stock valued at $121,271,000 after purchasing an additional 1,100,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler upgraded Nutrien from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $50.00 to $58.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group lowered Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $51.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. TD Securities lowered their target price on shares of Nutrien from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $56.00 price target (up previously from $55.00) on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Raymond James raised shares of Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $58.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.39.

Nutrien Price Performance

NYSE NTR opened at $53.81 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $26.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.11, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $47.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $47.92. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1 year low of $43.69 and a 1 year high of $60.87.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.04). Nutrien had a net margin of 2.79% and a return on equity of 6.99%. The firm had revenue of $5.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a dividend of $0.939 per share. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.98%. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 144.97%.

Nutrien Profile

Nutrien Ltd. provides crop inputs and services. The company operates through four segments: Retail, Potash, Nitrogen, and Phosphate. The Retail segment distributes crop nutrients, crop protection products, seeds, and merchandise products. The Potash segment provides granular and standard potash products.