Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Purchases 3,341,169 Shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 159.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 5,435,627 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,341,169 shares during the quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $242,976,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTR. Covea Finance increased its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 21.9% in the 4th quarter. Covea Finance now owns 55,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,485,000 after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Nutrien by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,396,887 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,200,000 after buying an additional 151,596 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Nutrien by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,886,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $84,367,000 after acquiring an additional 144,025 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Nutrien by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,480,870 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,264,000 after acquiring an additional 80,382 shares during the period. Finally, Secured Retirement Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Nutrien in the fourth quarter worth approximately $654,000. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NTR. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Mizuho increased their price target on Nutrien from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Nutrien from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on Nutrien in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Nutrien from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $60.00.

Nutrien Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of Nutrien stock opened at $50.13 on Friday. Nutrien Ltd. has a twelve month low of $43.70 and a twelve month high of $60.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $51.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $48.99. The firm has a market cap of $24.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.59, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.81.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $5.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.09 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 2.62% and a return on equity of 6.81%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.545 per share. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.35%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. Nutrien’s payout ratio is 159.12%.

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.