Traders Buy Large Volume of Nutrien Call Options (NYSE:NTR)

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders bought 7,652 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 75% compared to the average daily volume of 4,383 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTR. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division purchased a new stake in Nutrien in the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new stake in Nutrien during the second quarter valued at about $32,000. GoalVest Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Nutrien during the first quarter worth about $35,000. Trust Co. of Vermont boosted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 50.0% in the 2nd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 900 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its position in shares of Nutrien by 33.3% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 932 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Nutrien Stock Up 0.9 %

NTR opened at $49.02 on Thursday. Nutrien has a 12 month low of $44.65 and a 12 month high of $62.53. The company has a market cap of $24.25 billion, a PE ratio of 28.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company has a 50 day moving average of $47.55 and a 200 day moving average of $51.47.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $2.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.19 by $0.15. Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.91% and a net margin of 2.97%. The firm had revenue of $10.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.82 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.53 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Nutrien will post 3.83 EPS for the current year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be paid a $0.54 dividend. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is presently 126.32%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on NTR shares. Mizuho decreased their target price on Nutrien from $55.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Nutrien from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Nutrien in a report on Friday, September 20th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Nutrien from $68.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Finally, HSBC cut shares of Nutrien from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.50.

Nutrien Company Profile

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.