Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Shares Sold by Swiss National Bank

Swiss National Bank reduced its holdings in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 4.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,436,236 shares of the company’s stock after selling 59,600 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $64,234,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Forge First Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Nutrien in the fourth quarter valued at $2,774,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Nutrien by 23.9% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,804 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 348 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Nutrien during the fourth quarter worth about $250,000. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its position in Nutrien by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 17,452 shares of the company’s stock worth $781,000 after buying an additional 1,056 shares during the period. Finally, Wealthfront Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $556,000. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price objective on Nutrien from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Nutrien from $53.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Raymond James raised shares of Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $58.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Nutrien from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Nutrien in a research report on Thursday. They set a “sell” rating and a $53.00 price objective for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.13.

Nutrien Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE:NTR opened at $50.82 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The firm has a market cap of $24.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.09, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.81. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $51.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $48.68. Nutrien Ltd. has a 12-month low of $43.70 and a 12-month high of $60.87.

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

Nutrien Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.545 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.29%. Nutrien’s payout ratio is 159.12%.

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.