Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Short Interest Up 150.9% in March

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 16,110,000 shares, a growth of 150.9% from the February 28th total of 6,420,000 shares. Approximately 3.3% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,330,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.9 days.

Nutrien Stock Performance

NTR stock opened at $50.89 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Nutrien has a 1 year low of $43.70 and a 1 year high of $60.87. The company has a market cap of $24.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.81. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $51.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $48.94.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.09). Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.81% and a net margin of 2.62%. The firm had revenue of $5.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.09 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Nutrien will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.545 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.28%. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 159.12%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTR has been the subject of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Nutrien in a report on Thursday, March 13th. They set a “sell” rating and a $53.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer started coverage on Nutrien in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 price objective for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Nutrien from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Raymond James raised Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $58.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $60.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nutrien

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Nutrien by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,778,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $885,009,000 after purchasing an additional 325,210 shares in the last quarter. Dodge & Cox lifted its position in shares of Nutrien by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 12,523,259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $560,416,000 after buying an additional 40,800 shares in the last quarter. Silchester International Investors LLP grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Silchester International Investors LLP now owns 11,693,137 shares of the company’s stock valued at $523,268,000 after acquiring an additional 1,009,895 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 9,529,311 shares of the company’s stock worth $426,436,000 after purchasing an additional 77,174 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in Nutrien by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 7,105,057 shares of the company’s stock worth $317,951,000 after buying an additional 721,935 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

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.