Legal & General Group Plc Buys 174,999 Shares of Nutrien Ltd. $NTR

Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 6.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,705,643 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 174,999 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $167,223,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of NTR. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 19.1% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 14,221,381 shares of the company’s stock worth $834,962,000 after buying an additional 2,276,651 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 16.5% during the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 7,368,861 shares of the company’s stock worth $432,838,000 after buying an additional 1,043,766 shares during the last quarter. Black Creek Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 57.3% during the third quarter. Black Creek Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,367,244 shares of the company’s stock worth $139,050,000 after purchasing an additional 862,487 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 152.6% during the third quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,372,863 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,662,000 after purchasing an additional 829,275 shares during the period. Finally, Man Group plc lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 5,178.4% during the third quarter. Man Group plc now owns 775,919 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,577,000 after purchasing an additional 761,219 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Nutrien from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Nutrien in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered shares of Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce cut their price target on shares of Nutrien from $90.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperformer” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.75.

Nutrien Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NTR opened at $68.72 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $32.99 billion, a PE ratio of 14.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 1.24. Nutrien Ltd. has a 52 week low of $53.03 and a 52 week high of $85.36. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $73.28 and its 200-day moving average is $68.40.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.30 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 8.58% and a return on equity of 8.84%. Nutrien’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.11 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Nutrien Ltd. will post 5.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be issued a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 30th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 44.81%.

Nutrien 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.