Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of April. As of April 30th, there was short interest totaling 2,447,755 shares, a decline of 34.2% from the April 15th total of 3,717,784 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,560,981 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.0 days. Currently, 0.5% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nutrien

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Western Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Nutrien by 13.7% during the first quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,207 shares of the company’s stock worth $317,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 472,604 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,512,000 after acquiring an additional 12,509 shares in the last quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Nutrien by 4.0% in the first quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC now owns 6,505 shares of the company’s stock valued at $491,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Nutrien by 77.3% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $132,000 after acquiring an additional 760 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Nutrien by 4.6% in the first quarter. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 52,360 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,951,000 after acquiring an additional 2,300 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Trading Down 0.1%

NTR stock opened at $71.54 on Wednesday. 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 company’s 50-day simple moving average is $74.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $67.74. Nutrien has a 52 week low of $53.03 and a 52 week high of $85.36. The company has a market capitalization of $34.39 billion, a PE ratio of 14.57 and a beta of 0.64.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.03. Nutrien had a net margin of 8.58% and a return on equity of 8.84%. The business had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.11 earnings per share. Nutrien’s revenue was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Nutrien will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 17th. Investors 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 3.1%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is 44.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on NTR. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 11th. TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Nutrien in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $77.00 to $100.00 in a report on Friday, March 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Nutrien from $77.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.75.

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.