Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) Upgraded by Berenberg Bank to “Buy”

Berenberg Bank upgraded shares of Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Berenberg Bank currently has $66.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $60.00.

NTR has been the topic of a number of other research reports. TD Securities cut their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $75.00 to $67.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $88.00 to $78.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Piper Sandler cut shares of Nutrien from a neutral rating to an underweight rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Nutrien from a neutral rating to an underweight rating and dropped their price target for the company from $58.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nutrien presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $68.25.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of Nutrien stock opened at $54.08 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $53.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $53.94. Nutrien has a 1-year low of $47.90 and a 1-year high of $70.07. The company has a market cap of $26.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.38, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.89.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $5.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.36 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.02 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 24.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Nutrien will post 3.82 EPS for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.99%. Nutrien’s payout ratio is currently 85.38%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Nutrien during the fourth quarter valued at $332,716,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in Nutrien by 51.3% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,853,165 shares of the company’s stock valued at $425,881,000 after buying an additional 2,322,679 shares in the last quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP grew its stake in Nutrien by 120.2% in the 1st quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 3,780,881 shares of the company’s stock valued at $205,421,000 after buying an additional 2,063,881 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in Nutrien by 28.6% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 9,226,352 shares of the company’s stock valued at $522,309,000 after buying an additional 2,050,358 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC grew its stake in Nutrien by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 12,017,181 shares of the company’s stock valued at $676,928,000 after buying an additional 1,960,162 shares in the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.