Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Plans $0.55 Quarterly Dividend

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.545 per share on Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st.

Nutrien has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.5% per year over the last three years. Nutrien has a payout ratio of 57.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Nutrien to earn $3.72 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.16 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 58.1%.

Nutrien Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NTR traded up $0.67 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $53.12. 6,048,903 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,401,973. The stock has a market cap of $26.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.65, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.81. Nutrien has a twelve month low of $43.69 and a twelve month high of $60.87. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $49.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $48.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $5.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.09 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.99% and a net margin of 2.79%. On average, research analysts forecast that Nutrien will post 3.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Securities lowered their target price on Nutrien from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Nutrien from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Nutrien from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Raymond James raised shares of Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $58.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $56.00 price objective (up previously from $55.00) on shares of Nutrien in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.22.

About Nutrien

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.