First Western Trust Bank Acquires New Position in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

First Western Trust Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 4,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $225,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its position in shares of Nutrien by 904.0% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 753 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 678 shares during the last quarter. Evolution Advisers Inc. bought a new position in Nutrien in the 4th quarter worth about $49,000. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in Nutrien in the 3rd quarter worth about $58,000. Andra AP fonden bought a new position in Nutrien in the 3rd quarter worth about $62,000. Finally, CVA Family Office LLC bought a new position in Nutrien in the 4th quarter worth about $57,000. Institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Price Performance

NTR stock traded up $2.77 on Thursday, hitting $58.20. 3,298,190 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,973,208. Nutrien Ltd. has a 1-year low of $47.90 and a 1-year high of $69.12. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $53.44 and a 200-day moving average of $53.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The stock has a market cap of $28.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.88.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by ($0.35). Nutrien had a net margin of 4.33% and a return on equity of 8.59%. The firm had revenue of $5.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.02 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 24.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a dividend of $0.54 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.71%. This is a positive change from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. Nutrien’s payout ratio is currently 84.98%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on NTR shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $58.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. CIBC decreased their target price on shares of Nutrien from $87.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Nutrien from $77.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Nutrien from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James lowered shares of Nutrien from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $80.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Friday, January 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nutrien currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $67.50.

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.