BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Sells 909,213 Shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp cut its stake in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 85.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 159,117 shares of the company’s stock after selling 909,213 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $7,645,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Appian Way Asset Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Nutrien in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,475,000. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its position in Nutrien by 0.6% during the third quarter. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 308,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,839,000 after buying an additional 1,800 shares during the period. De Lisle Partners LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 28.6% during the 3rd quarter. De Lisle Partners LLP now owns 27,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,298,000 after buying an additional 6,000 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the 3rd quarter valued at $150,181,000. Finally, Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Nutrien in the 3rd quarter worth about $347,000. 63.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $66.00 to $59.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group lowered Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $51.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Nutrien in a report on Friday, September 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, TD Securities dropped their price target on shares of Nutrien from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nutrien currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $60.33.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE NTR opened at $46.66 on Monday. Nutrien Ltd. has a 12-month low of $44.65 and a 12-month high of $60.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $47.93 and a 200 day moving average of $49.71.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.39 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 analysts’ expectations of $5.26 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.99% and a net margin of 2.79%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.939 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.05%. This is an increase from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 144.97%.

About Nutrien

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.