Investors Buy High Volume of Put Options on Nutrien (NYSE:NTR)

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders bought 20,710 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 357% compared to the average daily volume of 4,536 put options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on NTR shares. TD Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Raymond James raised Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $58.00 to $60.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. UBS Group lowered Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $51.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Nutrien from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $62.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 target price on the stock. Three research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $58.95.

Nutrien Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of Nutrien stock traded up $0.82 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $44.86. 359,520 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,953,195. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.27. Nutrien has a 52 week low of $43.87 and a 52 week high of $60.87. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $47.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $48.74. The company has a market cap of $22.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.80.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its 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). Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.99% and a net margin of 2.79%. The company had revenue of $5.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.35 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Nutrien will post 3.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.939 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.37%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 144.97%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Syntax Research Inc. increased its position in Nutrien by 11.4% in the 3rd quarter. Syntax Research Inc. now owns 64,836 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,116,000 after buying an additional 6,637 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in Nutrien during the 3rd quarter valued at $2,237,000. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Nutrien in the 3rd quarter valued at $815,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Nutrien by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 43,610 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,098,000 after purchasing an additional 1,717 shares during the period. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank grew its position in Nutrien by 11.9% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 4,220,354 shares of the company’s stock worth $202,830,000 after purchasing an additional 447,413 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.