Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Short Interest Update

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,830,000 shares, a decrease of 18.5% from the March 31st total of 4,700,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,950,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.0 days. Approximately 0.8% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NTR. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Nutrien from $86.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Nutrien from $88.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 1st. CIBC lowered their target price on shares of Nutrien from $87.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Nutrien from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $68.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Nutrien presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.25.

Nutrien Stock Up 2.9 %

Shares of NYSE NTR traded up $1.53 on Monday, reaching $54.08. 1,910,894 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,986,673. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $53.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.94. Nutrien has a 12 month low of $47.90 and a 12 month high of $70.07. The company has a market cap of $26.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.89.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by ($0.35). Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 4.33%. The business had revenue of $5.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.36 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.02 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Nutrien will post 3.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a $0.54 dividend. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.99%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is 85.38%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Legacy Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Nutrien during the third quarter valued at $28,000. GoalVest Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Nutrien during the first quarter valued at about $35,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in Nutrien by 904.0% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 753 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 678 shares in the last quarter. Evolution Advisers Inc. bought a new position in shares of Nutrien during the fourth quarter worth $49,000. Finally, CVA Family Office LLC bought a new position in shares of Nutrien during the 4th quarter valued at about $57,000. Hedge funds and other 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.