NFJ Investment Group LLC Has $27.25 Million Position in Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

NFJ Investment Group LLC increased its position in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 3,125.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 436,521 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 422,988 shares during the period. NFJ Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $27,253,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 479,834 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in Nutrien by 19.1% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 14,221,381 shares of the company’s stock worth $834,962,000 after buying an additional 2,276,651 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased 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 worth $821,326,000 after buying an additional 70,068 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in Nutrien by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 9,798,196 shares of the company’s stock worth $604,745,000 after buying an additional 189,683 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Nutrien by 21.2% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 8,928,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $551,821,000 after buying an additional 1,559,673 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on NTR. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $77.00 to $100.00 in a report on Friday, March 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Nutrien from $77.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Nutrien from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $74.00 to $96.00 in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Nutrien in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nutrien currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.71.

Nutrien Trading Up 3.2%

Shares of Nutrien stock opened at $67.65 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $71.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.17. The company has a market cap of $32.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.78, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1 year low of $53.03 and a 1 year high of $85.36.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.30 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 8.58% and a return on equity of 8.84%. Nutrien’s quarterly revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.11 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.45 EPS for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be paid a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 30th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.81%.

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.