Advocate Group LLC Decreases Stake in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Advocate Group LLC cut its holdings in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 132,755 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,587 shares during the period. Advocate Group LLC’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $5,941,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in Nutrien in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its stake in Nutrien by 96.7% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 846 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in Nutrien in the 2nd quarter valued at about $52,000. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Nutrien by 1,370.6% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,603 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,000 after purchasing an additional 1,494 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Nutrien by 56.3% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,680 shares of the company’s stock valued at $86,000 after purchasing an additional 605 shares during the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on NTR. Raymond James raised shares of Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $58.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. UBS Group downgraded shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $51.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. CIBC reaffirmed an “outperformer” rating and set a $55.00 price objective (down previously from $60.00) on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $56.00 price objective (up previously from $55.00) on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, TD Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Nutrien has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.39.

Nutrien Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NTR opened at $52.79 on Friday. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1-year low of $43.69 and a 1-year high of $60.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $47.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $47.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.93 billion, a PE ratio of 35.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.81.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $5.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.26 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.99% and a net margin of 2.79%. Nutrien’s quarterly revenue was down 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.35 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.5 EPS for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a dividend of $0.939 per share. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.11%. This is a positive change from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 144.97%.

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.