Topic: How To Invest

The Successful Investor Hotline – Friday, November 6, 2020

Article Excerpt

NUTRIEN LTD., $51.91, Toronto symbol NTR, is still a buy. The company took its current form on January 1, 2018, when Agrium Inc. (old symbol AGU) merged with 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. Due to weak phosphate fertilizer prices based on a global surplus, the company wrote down the carrying value of its phosphate mines and processing plants in North Carolina and Florida by $823 million (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars). As a result, Nutrien lost $587 million, or $1.03 a share, in the three months ended September 30, 2020. A year earlier, it earned $141 million, or $0.24 a share. If you factor out unusual items, the company earned $0.23 a share in the latest quarter. That easily beat the consensus estimate of $0.12. Nutrien’s revenue in the quarter improved 0.9%, to $4.21 billion…