Norges Bank Buys Shares of 6,685,047 Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 6,685,047 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $412,635,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in NTR. Montag A & Associates Inc. boosted its stake in Nutrien by 310.7% during the 4th quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 423 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank boosted its stake in Nutrien by 133.0% during the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 399 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its stake in Nutrien by 97.2% during the 4th quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 704 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in Nutrien by 42.4% during the 2nd quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 735 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fulcrum Asset Management LLP purchased a new stake in Nutrien during the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Nutrien from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $77.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Nutrien from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $96.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. TD Securities restated a “buy” rating on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Nutrien from $77.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.75.

Nutrien Price Performance

Shares of Nutrien stock opened at $69.53 on Tuesday. Nutrien Ltd. has a one year low of $53.03 and a one year high of $85.36. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $72.77 and its 200 day moving average is $68.63. The stock has a market cap of $33.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.16, a P/E/G ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 1.24.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.03. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.84% and a net margin of 8.58%.The company had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.11 EPS. Nutrien’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be issued a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 30th. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.81%.

Nutrien Profile

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.