Capital spending cuts free up cash

Article Excerpt

NUTRIEN LTD. $71 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol NTR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 494.5 million; Market cap: $35.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 4.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nutrien.com) is the world’s largest producer of potash, nitrogen (made from natural gas) and phosphate fertilizers. It also sells seeds, fertilizers and agricultural products to farmers through some 2,000 stores spread across the Western Hemisphere and Australia. Due to the recent weakness in potash and other fertilizer prices, the company will cut its capital spending in 2024 to between $2.2 billion and $2.3 billion, from $2.7 billion in 2023 (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Thanks partly to those savings, Nutrien is raising your quarterly dividend by 1.9%. Starting with the April 2024 payment, investors will then receive $0.54 a share instead of $0.53. The new annual rate of $2.16 yields a high 4.1%. The company also plans to buy back 5% of its outstanding shares over…