Short Interest in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Expands By 92.8%

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totaling 10,241,667 shares, a growth of 92.8% from the June 15th total of 5,310,769 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 3,476,553 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.9 days. Currently, 2.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Scotia raised shares of Nutrien from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Nutrien from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Raymond James Financial raised Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $74.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nutrien presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Guggenheim Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 6,628 shares of the company’s stock worth $409,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC now owns 9,032 shares of the company’s stock valued at $557,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise increased its position in shares of Nutrien by 15.9% in the first quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 1,198 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Gould Asset Management LLC CA increased its position in shares of Nutrien by 4.4% in the first quarter. Gould Asset Management LLC CA now owns 3,933 shares of the company’s stock valued at $297,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Nutrien by 21.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 983 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Price Performance

NYSE:NTR opened at $67.27 on Friday. Nutrien has a 12-month low of $53.03 and a 12-month high of $85.36. The firm has a market cap of $32.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 0.62. The company’s 50-day moving average is $66.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $69.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.30 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 8.58% and a return on equity of 8.84%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.11 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Nutrien will post 5.11 EPS for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th were issued a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 30th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.3%. Nutrien’s payout ratio is 44.81%.

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.