Covea Finance Decreases Stock Position in Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Covea Finance decreased its position in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 34.0% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 48,500 shares of the company’s stock after selling 25,000 shares during the period. Covea Finance’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $2,847,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTR. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the second quarter valued at about $395,842,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in Nutrien by 48.5% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 11,944,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $696,058,000 after purchasing an additional 3,900,755 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners purchased a new stake in Nutrien during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $150,416,000. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Nutrien by 14.0% in the 2nd quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 13,268,229 shares of the company’s stock valued at $772,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,627,328 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 17.1% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 8,786,309 shares of the company’s stock valued at $436,137,000 after buying an additional 1,284,181 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on NTR shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $61.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Nutrien from $63.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Nutrien from $61.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $67.00 price objective on shares of Nutrien in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.17.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NTR stock opened at $63.54 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $30.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.13 and a beta of 0.72. The business has a 50 day moving average of $58.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.71. Nutrien Ltd. has a 52 week low of $43.69 and a 52 week high of $65.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.06. Nutrien had a return on equity of 7.54% and a net margin of 6.79%.The business had revenue of $5.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.39 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.72 EPS for the current year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.545 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Nutrien’s payout ratio is 58.76%.

Nutrien Company Profile

Nutrien Ltd. is a global fertilizer and agricultural-services company headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The company is publicly traded and operates across the farm input value chain, combining upstream fertilizer production with a broad retail and services platform aimed at supporting crop production worldwide. Nutrien’s business model integrates the manufacture and distribution of crop nutrients with on-the-ground agronomic support for growers and agricultural businesses.

Nutrien produces and supplies the three primary fertilizer nutrients—potash, nitrogen and phosphate—through its wholesale operations, and markets a wide range of crop inputs including seeds and crop protection products.