Nutrien still plans to expand output

Article Excerpt

NUTRIEN LTD. $101 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol NTR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 538.9 million; Market cap: $54.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nutrien.com) is the world’s largest producer of agricultural fertilizers: it ships about 27 million tonnes annually. Partly due to rising costs for fuel and energy, farmers are applying less fertilizer. As a result, Nutrien now expects its potash sales for 2022 will range between 12.5 million and 12.9 million tonnes. That’s down from its earlier forecast of between 14.3 million and 14.9 million tonnes. However, economic sanctions on Russia and Belarus will continue to restrict their potash exports—and keep prices high. As a result, Nutrien still plans to increase its annual potash capacity to 18.5 million tonnes by 2025, which is 40% higher than its 2020 output. Nutrien is a buy. buy. …