Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,780,000 shares, a decrease of 18.0% from the January 15th total of 5,830,000 shares. Approximately 1.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,120,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Parvin Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Nutrien during the fourth quarter worth about $646,000. Guardian Capital LP boosted its stake in Nutrien by 43.1% during the 4th quarter. Guardian Capital LP now owns 439,179 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,641,000 after acquiring an additional 132,169 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Nutrien by 59.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 356,031 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,932,000 after purchasing an additional 132,601 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Nutrien by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,627,597 shares of the company’s stock valued at $252,108,000 after purchasing an additional 76,085 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Nutrien in the fourth quarter worth $19,663,000. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Raymond James raised Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $58.00 to $60.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Nutrien from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $40.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Nutrien from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $56.00 price target (up from $55.00) on shares of Nutrien in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Nutrien currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.00.

Nutrien Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE NTR opened at $50.92 on Friday. Nutrien has a fifty-two week low of $43.69 and a fifty-two week high of $60.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.81. 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $49.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $48.14.

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.