16,963 Shares in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Acquired by Virtu Financial LLC

Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 16,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $815,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NTR. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in shares of Nutrien by 15.5% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 13,354,385 shares of the company’s stock valued at $719,668,000 after purchasing an additional 1,794,333 shares during the period. Silchester International Investors LLP boosted its position in Nutrien by 164.4% in the 3rd quarter. Silchester International Investors LLP now owns 10,683,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $513,437,000 after buying an additional 6,642,075 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in Nutrien by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 9,006,528 shares of the company’s stock worth $458,522,000 after acquiring an additional 167,312 shares in the last quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd increased its position in shares of Nutrien by 8.1% during the second quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 5,990,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,970,000 after acquiring an additional 446,340 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Nutrien by 8.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,145,375 shares of the company’s stock valued at $261,985,000 after acquiring an additional 399,348 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Oppenheimer started coverage on Nutrien in a research note on Thursday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. TD Securities dropped their price target on Nutrien from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Nutrien from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $50.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. UBS Group cut shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $51.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Nutrien in a report on Friday, September 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $58.95.

Nutrien Stock Up 0.5 %

Nutrien stock opened at $48.18 on Friday. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1-year low of $44.65 and a 1-year high of $60.87. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $47.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $49.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.34, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.80.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.04). Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.99% and a net margin of 2.79%. The business had revenue of $5.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. Nutrien’s revenue was down 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.939 per share. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This is an increase from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. Nutrien’s payout ratio is currently 144.97%.

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.