PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. Sells 4,610 Shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. lowered its stake in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 25.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,290 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,610 shares during the quarter. PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd.’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $639,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. CORDA Investment Management LLC. increased its holdings in Nutrien by 7.0% during the third quarter. CORDA Investment Management LLC. now owns 494,745 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,777,000 after buying an additional 32,541 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Nutrien during the second quarter worth $2,639,000. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Nutrien by 4.3% during the third quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. now owns 564,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,139,000 after buying an additional 23,117 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR increased its holdings in Nutrien by 335.0% during the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 70,301 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,379,000 after buying an additional 54,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Fund Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Nutrien by 88.6% in the third quarter. Royal Fund Management LLC now owns 30,722 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,477,000 after purchasing an additional 14,434 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NTR stock opened at $45.56 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $22.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.82. Nutrien Ltd. has a 52 week low of $44.65 and a 52 week 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 firm has a 50 day moving average of $47.98 and a 200-day moving average of $50.28.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.04). Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.99% and a net margin of 2.79%. The company had revenue of $5.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.26 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.35 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.939 dividend. This is a boost from Nutrien’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 144.97%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group downgraded shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $51.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Nutrien from $68.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Nutrien from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Nutrien from $55.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Nutrien from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nutrien has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $60.33.

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.