First Pacific Financial Increases Holdings in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

First Pacific Financial increased its holdings in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,399 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 206 shares during the quarter. First Pacific Financial’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $699,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of NTR. Covestor Ltd acquired a new stake in Nutrien during the first quarter valued at $30,000. Zions Bancorporation N.A. grew its position in shares of Nutrien by 55.2% in the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 301 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the period. Legacy Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the third quarter worth about $28,000. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Nutrien during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its position in shares of Nutrien by 904.0% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 753 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 678 shares in the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nutrien Trading Up 1.1 %

Nutrien stock opened at $53.63 on Thursday. Nutrien Ltd. has a 12-month low of $47.90 and a 12-month high of $75.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.52 billion, a PE ratio of 21.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 0.65.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by ($0.35). Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 4.33%. The firm had revenue of $5.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.36 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.02 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 24.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a $0.54 dividend. This is a positive change from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.03%. Nutrien’s payout ratio is 83.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on NTR. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Nutrien from $86.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Berenberg Bank decreased their target price on shares of Nutrien from $67.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Nutrien in a research report on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price target for the company. Finally, Raymond James downgraded Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $80.00 to $65.00 in a report on Friday, January 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.43.

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.