Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Shares Sold by Van ECK Associates Corp

Van ECK Associates Corp trimmed its position in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 4.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,625,840 shares of the company’s stock after selling 74,106 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $91,584,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 51.3% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,853,165 shares of the company’s stock valued at $425,881,000 after purchasing an additional 2,322,679 shares during the period. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd increased its holdings in Nutrien by 18,312.9% in the 4th quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 1,595,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,862,000 after buying an additional 1,586,631 shares during the period. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd raised its position in Nutrien by 544.3% during the 3rd quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 1,361,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,794,000 after buying an additional 1,150,000 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in Nutrien by 15.0% during the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 7,175,994 shares of the company’s stock valued at $445,187,000 after acquiring an additional 933,517 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,369,027 shares of the company’s stock valued at $393,325,000 after acquiring an additional 849,908 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $58.00 to $48.00 in a report on Friday, February 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on Nutrien from $88.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. CIBC lowered their price objective on Nutrien from $87.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. HSBC cut their target price on shares of Nutrien from $63.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Nutrien in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $66.00 price target on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.25.

Nutrien Price Performance

Shares of NTR traded down $1.00 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $53.08. 327,648 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,966,215. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $53.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $53.94. Nutrien Ltd. has a 12-month low of $47.90 and a 12-month high of $70.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 1.17. The company has a market cap of $26.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.89.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.72 by ($0.35). The business had revenue of $5.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.36 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 4.33%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.02 EPS. Research analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a $0.54 dividend. This is a positive change from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.07%. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 85.38%.

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.