Legal & General Group Plc Buys Shares of 2,534,176 Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 2,534,176 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,597,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Montag A & Associates Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 310.7% in the fourth quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 423 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the period. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Nutrien during the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC purchased a new position in Nutrien in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. boosted its position in Nutrien by 1,014.0% in the 2nd quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 479 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 436 shares during the period. Finally, Allied Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Nutrien in the second quarter worth $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on NTR shares. Berenberg Bank set a $65.00 price objective on Nutrien and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Barclays lowered their target price on Nutrien from $81.00 to $78.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Nutrien from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Nutrien from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on Nutrien from $77.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.58.

Nutrien Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of NYSE NTR opened at $73.72 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $66.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $70.51. The company has a market capitalization of $35.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.61. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1 year low of $53.03 and a 1 year high of $85.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $2.61 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $10.44 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.65 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 4.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 16th. Shareholders 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 currently 44.53%.

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.