Madison Asset Management LLC Buys New Holdings in Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Madison Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 13,077 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $987,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NTR. Amova Asset Management Americas Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 17.9% during the 1st quarter. Amova Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 109,543 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,262,000 after acquiring an additional 16,617 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Nutrien by 4.3% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,872,194 shares of the company’s stock valued at $443,151,000 after acquiring an additional 239,946 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its position in Nutrien by 71.1% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 3,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $233,000 after purchasing an additional 1,280 shares in the last quarter. SEB Asset Management AB acquired a new position in Nutrien in the first quarter worth about $5,124,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in Nutrien by 26.5% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,627,036 shares of the company’s stock worth $122,639,000 after purchasing an additional 340,900 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Trading Up 2.4%

Shares of NTR opened at $68.47 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $66.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $70.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.75 billion, a PE ratio of 13.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.62. Nutrien Ltd. has a 12-month low of $53.03 and a 12-month 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.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.30 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.84% and a net margin of 8.58%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.11 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th were paid a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 30th. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.2%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.81%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Scotiabank upgraded Nutrien from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Berenberg Bank set a $65.00 price objective on Nutrien and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Nutrien from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.00.

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.