Panagora Asset Management Inc. Purchases New Position in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Panagora Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,753 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $268,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 904.0% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 753 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 678 shares during the last quarter. Evolution Advisers Inc. bought a new stake in Nutrien during the fourth quarter worth $49,000. CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new position in Nutrien in the fourth quarter worth $57,000. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in Nutrien in the 3rd quarter valued at $58,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the 4th quarter valued at $61,000. 63.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on NTR shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Nutrien from $88.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Mizuho raised their price target on Nutrien from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Scotiabank cut their target price on Nutrien from $67.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Nutrien in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $66.00 price target for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $67.32.

Nutrien Price Performance

Shares of Nutrien stock opened at $58.86 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $29.11 billion, a PE ratio of 34.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a 50 day moving average of $54.82 and a 200 day moving average of $53.90. Nutrien Ltd. has a 52 week low of $47.90 and a 52 week high of $69.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.72 by ($0.35). The firm had revenue of $5.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.36 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 7.31% and a net margin of 3.01%. Nutrien’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.54 per share. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.67%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is 126.32%.

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.