Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. Grows Stake in Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 60.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 212,320 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 80,365 shares during the period. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $13,129,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Nutrien by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,463,277 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,386,546,000 after acquiring an additional 479,834 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 19.1% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 14,221,381 shares of the company’s stock valued at $834,962,000 after buying an additional 2,276,651 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 0.5% during 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 buying an additional 70,068 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 16.5% during the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 7,368,861 shares of the company’s stock valued at $432,838,000 after buying an additional 1,043,766 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 1.7% during the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 5,539,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $325,325,000 after buying an additional 95,274 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Stock Down 1.6%

Shares of NYSE NTR opened at $68.53 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.96, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.64. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $72.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $68.49. Nutrien Ltd. has a 52-week low of $53.03 and a 52-week high of $85.36.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarterly revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.11 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $74.00 to $96.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Nutrien from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Raymond James Financial upgraded Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $74.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Nutrien from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Eleven 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.75.

About Nutrien

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.