Nutrien Ltd. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.55 (NYSE:NTR)

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.545 per share on Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st.

Nutrien has increased its dividend by an average of 5.5% per year over the last three years. Nutrien has a payout ratio of 57.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Nutrien to earn $3.72 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.16 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 58.1%.

Nutrien Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE NTR traded up $0.67 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $53.12. The company had a trading volume of 6,048,903 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,401,973. Nutrien has a 52-week low of $43.69 and a 52-week high of $60.87. The stock has a market cap of $26.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.65, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $48.16.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $5.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.09 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.99% and a net margin of 2.79%. Sell-side analysts predict that Nutrien will post 3.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on NTR shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Nutrien from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of Nutrien in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Nutrien from $59.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Raymond James raised Nutrien from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $58.00 to $60.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Nutrien from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.22.

Nutrien Company 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.