Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Increases Holdings in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC increased its stake in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 1.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 67,816 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 690 shares during the quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $3,257,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division bought a new position in Nutrien during the third quarter valued at $28,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in shares of Nutrien during the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. Andra AP fonden bought a new position in shares of Nutrien during the 2nd quarter worth $51,000. Oakworth Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in Nutrien in the 2nd quarter worth about $52,000. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in Nutrien in the 2nd quarter valued at about $52,000. 63.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTR has been the subject of a number of research reports. TD Securities cut their target price on shares of Nutrien from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $68.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 16th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Nutrien from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $62.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Nutrien in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, UBS Group cut Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $51.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $60.06.

Nutrien Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NTR opened at $48.80 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.27. The firm has a market cap of $24.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.80. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $47.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.26. Nutrien Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $44.65 and a fifty-two week high of $60.87.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.04). Nutrien had a net margin of 2.79% and a return on equity of 6.99%. The company had revenue of $5.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.35 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.939 per share. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio is 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.