Raymond James Upgrades Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) to “Outperform”

Raymond James upgraded shares of Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $60.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $58.00.

Several other analysts also recently commented on the stock. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $55.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Nutrien from $68.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $53.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Nutrien from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nutrien has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.06.

Nutrien Price Performance

Shares of NTR opened at $48.79 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $47.96 and a 200-day moving average of $49.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The company has a market capitalization of $24.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.80. Nutrien has a 1 year low of $44.65 and a 1 year high of $60.87.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $5.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.26 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.99% and a net margin of 2.79%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Nutrien will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.939 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.70%. This is a positive change from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 144.97%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NTR. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its position in Nutrien by 21.3% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 5,897 shares of the company’s stock worth $321,000 after purchasing an additional 1,036 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Nutrien by 160.9% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,075 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 663 shares during the period. CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 6.1% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 5,923 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,000 after buying an additional 338 shares in the last quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Nutrien by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC now owns 70,124 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,570,000 after buying an additional 1,540 shares during the period. Finally, Tilia Fiduciary Partners Inc. grew its stake in Nutrien by 7.2% in the 2nd quarter. Tilia Fiduciary Partners Inc. now owns 27,127 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,381,000 after buying an additional 1,812 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

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.