Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Shares Acquired by Townsend & Associates Inc

Townsend & Associates Inc lifted its holdings in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 582,477 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 19,631 shares during the quarter. Nutrien makes up approximately 2.7% of Townsend & Associates Inc’s holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Townsend & Associates Inc’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $26,066,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Goodman Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 4.6% in the third quarter. Goodman Financial Corp now owns 253,860 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,201,000 after purchasing an additional 11,058 shares in the last quarter. CORDA Investment Management LLC. grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 7.0% in the third quarter. CORDA Investment Management LLC. now owns 494,745 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,777,000 after purchasing an additional 32,541 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 10.0% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,742,351 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,812,000 after purchasing an additional 157,932 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 335.0% in the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 70,301 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,379,000 after purchasing an additional 54,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covea Finance grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 21.9% in the fourth quarter. Covea Finance now owns 55,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,485,000 after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NTR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Nutrien from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $58.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. CIBC reiterated an “outperformer” rating and issued a $55.00 price target (down previously from $60.00) on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Nutrien from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Nutrien from $59.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Nutrien presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.39.

Nutrien Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:NTR opened at $52.68 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.80 billion, a PE ratio of 38.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.81. 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 Ltd. has a twelve month low of $43.69 and a twelve month high of $60.87. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $48.24.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.09). Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.81% and a net margin of 2.62%. The company had revenue of $5.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.09 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.545 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.14%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 157.67%.

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.