Mraz Amerine & Associates Inc. Purchases 1,369 Shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Mraz Amerine & Associates Inc. boosted its position in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 18,535 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,369 shares during the period. Mraz Amerine & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $1,044,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Townsend & Associates Inc raised its holdings in Nutrien by 27.8% in the third quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 163,942 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,125,000 after purchasing an additional 35,690 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in Nutrien by 2.5% in the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 6,361,084 shares of the company’s stock worth $394,047,000 after purchasing an additional 154,159 shares in the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 64.6% during the third quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 75,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,690,000 after acquiring an additional 29,819 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 0.5% during the third quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 9,262,659 shares of the company’s stock worth $572,062,000 after acquiring an additional 48,230 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG grew its stake in shares of Nutrien by 1.5% during the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 14,708,135 shares of the company’s stock worth $908,374,000 after acquiring an additional 214,299 shares during the last quarter. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. HSBC dropped their target price on Nutrien from $63.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Nutrien in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $66.00 target price on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Nutrien from $88.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Nutrien from $77.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $58.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.95.

Nutrien Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NTR traded up $0.14 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $51.81. The company had a trading volume of 1,252,589 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,051,746. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1-year low of $47.90 and a 1-year high of $75.29. The stock has a market cap of $25.62 billion, a PE ratio of 20.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $54.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by ($0.35). The business had revenue of $5.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.36 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 4.33%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.02 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a $0.54 dividend. This is an increase from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. Nutrien’s payout ratio is currently 85.38%.

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.