Fruth Investment Management Reduces Stake in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Fruth Investment Management lessened its position in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 15,280 shares of the company’s stock after selling 540 shares during the quarter. Fruth Investment Management’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $683,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Goodman Financial Corp increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 11,058 shares during the last quarter. CORDA Investment Management LLC. lifted its position in Nutrien by 7.0% during the third 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. grew its holdings in Nutrien by 10.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,742,351 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,812,000 after purchasing an additional 157,932 shares during the period. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Nutrien by 4.3% in the third quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. now owns 564,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,139,000 after buying an additional 23,117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Inc. AR raised its stake in shares of Nutrien by 335.0% in the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 70,301 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,379,000 after buying an additional 54,138 shares during the period. 63.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTR has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. TD Securities cut their price objective on Nutrien from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Nutrien from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Nutrien from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. CIBC restated an “outperformer” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective (down from $60.00) on shares of Nutrien in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Raymond James upgraded Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $58.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.94.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Nutrien stock opened at $51.79 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. Nutrien Ltd. has a twelve month low of $43.69 and a twelve month high of $60.87. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $48.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $48.07. The company has a market cap of $25.43 billion, a PE ratio of 34.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.81.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $5.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.26 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 2.79% and a return on equity of 6.99%. Nutrien’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.35 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.