Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 3,410,000 shares, a drop of 17.4% from the November 15th total of 4,130,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,090,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.6 days. Currently, 0.7% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NTR. Goodman Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Goodman Financial Corp now owns 253,860 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,201,000 after buying an additional 11,058 shares in the last quarter. CORDA Investment Management LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. CORDA Investment Management LLC. now owns 494,745 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,777,000 after acquiring an additional 32,541 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Nutrien by 10.0% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,742,351 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,812,000 after acquiring an additional 157,932 shares in the last quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Nutrien by 4.3% during the third quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. now owns 564,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,139,000 after acquiring an additional 23,117 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Inc. AR raised its position in Nutrien by 335.0% during the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 70,301 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,379,000 after purchasing an additional 54,138 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Friday, September 20th. CIBC restated an “outperformer” rating and set a $55.00 price objective (down from $60.00) on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group lowered shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $51.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer initiated coverage on Nutrien in a research note on Thursday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 target price on the stock. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nutrien presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $58.95.

Nutrien Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE:NTR traded up $0.25 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $48.18. The company had a trading volume of 1,478,614 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,958,913. Nutrien has a 52 week low of $44.65 and a 52 week high of $60.87. The company has a market capitalization of $23.72 billion, a PE ratio of 32.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.80. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $47.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $5.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.26 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.99% and a net margin of 2.79%. The company’s revenue was down 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Nutrien will post 3.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.939 per share. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 144.97%.

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.