Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) Hits New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $68.50 and last traded at $67.4980, with a volume of 257184 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $67.22.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank lowered their price target on Nutrien from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 17th. Mizuho lifted their price target on Nutrien from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 16th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Nutrien from $58.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $70.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.71.

Nutrien Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $34.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.10 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.14.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.06. Nutrien had a net margin of 6.79% and a return on equity of 7.54%. The company had revenue of $5.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.39 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st were issued a dividend of $0.545 per share. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 31st. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 58.76%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nutrien

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Nutrien by 0.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,983,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,291,022,000 after acquiring an additional 80,135 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 19.1% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 14,221,381 shares of the company’s stock valued at $834,962,000 after acquiring an additional 2,276,651 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 14.0% in the 2nd quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 13,268,229 shares of the company’s stock valued at $772,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,627,328 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 16.5% in the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 7,368,861 shares of the company’s stock worth $432,838,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043,766 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Nutrien in the 2nd quarter worth about $395,842,000. Institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

About Nutrien

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.