Nutrien Ltd. $NTR is Townsend & Associates Inc’s 6th Largest Position

Townsend & Associates Inc lifted its position in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 612,842 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,540 shares during the period. Nutrien comprises approximately 3.7% of Townsend & Associates Inc’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Townsend & Associates Inc’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $41,569,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of NTR. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of Nutrien by 19.1% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 14,221,381 shares of the company’s stock worth $834,962,000 after purchasing an additional 2,276,651 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Nutrien by 16.5% during the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 7,368,861 shares of the company’s stock worth $432,838,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043,766 shares during the last quarter. Black Creek Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Nutrien by 57.3% during the 3rd quarter. Black Creek Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,367,244 shares of the company’s stock worth $139,050,000 after purchasing an additional 862,487 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its position in shares of Nutrien by 152.6% during the 3rd quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,372,863 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,662,000 after purchasing an additional 829,275 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Man Group plc lifted its position in shares of Nutrien by 5,178.4% during the 3rd quarter. Man Group plc now owns 775,919 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,577,000 after purchasing an additional 761,219 shares during the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nutrien Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NTR opened at $73.65 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $74.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $65.50. Nutrien Ltd. has a 12 month low of $51.98 and a 12 month high of $85.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.80 and a beta of 0.69.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.04). Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 8.43%.The company had revenue of $5.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.31 earnings per share. Nutrien’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be paid a $0.55 dividend. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 31st. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.21%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $77.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $96.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Nutrien from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $79.65.

About Nutrien

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.