Silchester International Investors LLP Grows Stake in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Silchester International Investors LLP boosted its position in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 9.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,693,137 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,009,895 shares during the quarter. Nutrien makes up 99.1% of Silchester International Investors LLP’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Silchester International Investors LLP owned approximately 2.38% of Nutrien worth $523,268,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Nutrien from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. TD Securities lowered their price target on Nutrien from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Nutrien from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $62.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. UBS Group lowered shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $66.00 to $51.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, CIBC reissued an “outperformer” rating and set a $55.00 price objective (down previously from $60.00) on shares of Nutrien in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nutrien currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.39.

Nutrien Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NTR opened at $51.29 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.19 billion, a PE ratio of 34.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 0.81. The company’s fifty day moving average is $47.12 and its 200 day moving average is $47.88. 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 Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $43.69 and a fifty-two week high of $60.87.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $5.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.26 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 2.79% and a return on equity of 6.99%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a $0.939 dividend. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.32%. Nutrien’s payout ratio is 144.97%.

Nutrien 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.