Vontobel Holding Ltd. Raises Stock Holdings in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 82,047 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,764 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $4,623,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NTR. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 79.6% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,490,036 shares of the company’s stock worth $362,929,000 after purchasing an additional 1,547,030 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien during the first quarter worth about $323,000. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 5.7% during the first quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 11,675 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,208,000 after purchasing an additional 629 shares in the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. grew its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 55.2% during the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 301 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien during the first quarter worth about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Price Performance

Shares of Nutrien stock opened at $51.81 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $25.62 billion, a PE ratio of 20.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50 day moving average of $52.84 and a 200 day moving average of $54.37. Nutrien Ltd. has a 52 week low of $47.90 and a 52 week high of $75.29. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by ($0.35). Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 4.33%. The company had revenue of $5.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.36 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.02 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 24.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.54 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.17%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 85.38%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on NTR shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $58.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Raymond James lowered Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $80.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Friday, January 12th. TD Securities cut their target price on Nutrien from $75.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. CIBC cut their target price on Nutrien from $87.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Nutrien from $88.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nutrien presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $67.95.

Nutrien Profile

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.