Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Short Interest Down 34.2% in April

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in April. As of April 30th, there was short interest totaling 2,447,755 shares, a decrease of 34.2% from the April 15th total of 3,717,784 shares. Approximately 0.5% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,560,981 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.0 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nutrien

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Montag A & Associates Inc. grew its holdings in Nutrien by 310.7% during the 4th quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 423 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Nutrien during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Sfam LLC purchased a new position in Nutrien during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Root Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Nutrien during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Eastern Bank grew its holdings in Nutrien by 133.0% during the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 399 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Stock Performance

NYSE:NTR opened at $71.60 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Nutrien has a 12-month low of $53.03 and a 12-month high of $85.36. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $74.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.58 and a beta of 0.64.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.30 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.84% and a net margin of 8.58%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.11 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Nutrien will post 5.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 30th. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Research cut Nutrien from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Nutrien from $77.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Barclays increased their target price on Nutrien from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Nutrien from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Nutrien currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.75.

About Nutrien

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.