Nutrien exceeds a key target

Article Excerpt

NUTRIEN LTD. $73 (Toronto symbol NTR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 619.4 million; Market cap: $45.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.4; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nutrien.com) took its current form on January 1, 2018, through the merger of Agrium (old symbol AGU) and rival fertilizer producer Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (old symbol POT). Potash Corp. shareholders received 0.40 shares in Nutrien for each POT share they held; Agrium investors received 2.23 shares for each AGU share. In the three months ended June 30, 2018, the combined company’s sales rose 10.8%, to $8.15 billion from $7.35 billion a year earlier (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars; the year-earlier amounts are pro-forma figures supplied by the company). Strong demand for fertilizers and seeds in the spring planting season was the main reason for the higher sales. Nutrien’s earnings from continuing operations in the quarter improved 5.1%, to $741 million from $705 million. That’s partly because the merger has let…