Van Strum & Towne Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Van Strum & Towne Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 38.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,658 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,808 shares during the period. Van Strum & Towne Inc.’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $343,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NTR. Atria Investments Inc boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 2.0% in the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 14,636 shares of the company’s stock worth $703,000 after purchasing an additional 290 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien during the 3rd quarter valued at $265,000. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in Nutrien by 16.3% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 34,519 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,659,000 after buying an additional 4,832 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in Nutrien by 0.8% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,495,836 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,995,000 after acquiring an additional 11,800 shares during the period. Finally, Aviance Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Nutrien by 85.2% in the third quarter. Aviance Capital Partners LLC now owns 23,872 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,147,000 after acquiring an additional 10,981 shares in the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on NTR. 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. CIBC lifted their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Nutrien from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Nutrien from $53.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $60.13.

Nutrien Stock Performance

NYSE:NTR opened at $50.82 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.86 billion, a PE ratio of 37.09, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.81. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $51.26 and its 200 day moving average is $48.67. Nutrien Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $43.70 and a fifty-two week high of $60.87. 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 (NYSE:NTR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.09). Nutrien had a net margin of 2.62% and a return on equity of 6.81%. The firm had revenue of $5.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.09 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.545 dividend. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Nutrien’s payout ratio is currently 159.12%.

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.