Legal & General Group Plc Acquires Shares of 2,534,176 Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 2,534,176 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,597,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.53% of Nutrien at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its stake in Nutrien by 65.1% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 25,224 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,253,000 after buying an additional 9,950 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Nutrien by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 6,907 shares of the company’s stock worth $343,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien during the 1st quarter worth $516,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien during the 1st quarter worth $54,000. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Nutrien during the 2nd quarter valued at about $203,000. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on NTR. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $74.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Nutrien from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Nutrien from $77.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Scotiabank 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 research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Scotia upgraded Nutrien from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Nutrien presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.58.

Nutrien Trading Up 1.2%

NYSE NTR opened at $73.72 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $66.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $70.51. Nutrien Ltd. has a 12 month low of $53.03 and a 12 month high of $85.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.92, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.61.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $2.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.70 by ($0.09). Nutrien had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 8.88%. The company had revenue of $10.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.44 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.65 earnings per share. Nutrien’s revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Nutrien Ltd. will post 4.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 29th will be given a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 29th. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 44.53%.

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.