Gabelli Funds LLC Purchases 13,000 Shares of Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR)

Gabelli Funds LLC lifted its position in Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) by 33.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 52,090 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 13,000 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC’s holdings in Nutrien were worth $2,331,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in NTR. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Nutrien in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Nutrien by 331.0% in the 4th quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in Nutrien by 1,437.5% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 738 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 690 shares in the last quarter. Asset Planning Inc acquired a new stake in Nutrien during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its stake in Nutrien by 96.7% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 846 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTR has been the subject of several research reports. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Nutrien from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. CIBC increased their target price on Nutrien from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. BNP Paribas upgraded Nutrien to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Nutrien from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Nutrien from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Nutrien has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.40.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Shares of NTR opened at $52.50 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $25.66 billion, a PE ratio of 38.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.77. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $50.86 and a 200-day moving average of $49.26. Nutrien Ltd. has a one year low of $43.70 and a one year high of $60.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last posted its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $5.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.09 billion. Nutrien had a return on equity of 6.81% and a net margin of 2.62%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Nutrien Ltd. will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Nutrien Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 10th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a dividend of $0.545 per share. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.15%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. Nutrien’s payout ratio is presently 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.