Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 5,523 Shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lessened its holdings in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 11.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,310 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,523 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $2,329,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in NTR. First Pacific Financial boosted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 12,399 shares of the company’s stock worth $699,000 after acquiring an additional 206 shares during the period. Capital Investment Counsel Inc increased its position in Nutrien by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Investment Counsel Inc now owns 8,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $501,000 after buying an additional 240 shares during the period. Ruggaard & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 4.7% during the third quarter. Ruggaard & Associates LLC now owns 5,848 shares of the company’s stock worth $361,000 after buying an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Nutrien by 0.7% in the third quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 50,043 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,100,000 after acquiring an additional 337 shares during the period. Finally, Meixler Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 8.7% in the third quarter. Meixler Investment Management Ltd. now owns 4,201 shares of the company’s stock valued at $259,000 after acquiring an additional 338 shares in 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 have issued reports on NTR shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 19th. HSBC cut their target price on Nutrien from $63.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 8th. CIBC dropped their price target on Nutrien from $87.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $77.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Finally, TD Securities dropped their target price on shares of Nutrien from $75.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.25.

Nutrien Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:NTR traded down $0.05 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $55.21. The company had a trading volume of 297,160 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,941,415. The company has a market capitalization of $27.31 billion, a PE ratio of 21.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.89. Nutrien Ltd. has a one year low of $47.90 and a one year high of $69.12. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $53.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $53.62. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $5.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.36 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.02 EPS. Nutrien’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.82 EPS for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a dividend of $0.54 per share. This is an increase from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.91%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is presently 85.38%.

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.