Creative Planning boosted its stake in Agrium Inc. (NYSE:AGU) by 19.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,991 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 478 shares during the period. Creative Planning’s holdings in Agrium were worth $267,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Separately, J. W. Burns & Company boosted its position in Agrium by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. J. W. Burns & Company now owns 28,202 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,520,000 after buying an additional 228 shares during the last quarter.

Shares of Agrium Inc. (NYSE:AGU) traded up 1.54% during trading on Friday, hitting $87.80. The stock had a trading volume of 908,335 shares. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $89.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $96.44. Agrium Inc. has a 52 week low of $81.06 and a 52 week high of $116.81. The company has a market capitalization of $12.13 billion and a PE ratio of 15.08.

Agrium (NYSE:AGU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.12. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.63 earnings per share. The company had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.97 billion. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Agrium Inc. will post $7.15 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, December 31st were paid a dividend of $0.875 per share. This is a boost from Agrium’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 29th. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.99%.

Several research firms have weighed in on AGU. Cowen and Company increased their price objective on Agrium from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 21st. TD Securities increased their price objective on Agrium from $105.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Friday, November 6th. Credit Suisse decreased their price target on Agrium from $110.00 to $102.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 21st. Citigroup Inc. upgraded Agrium from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 5th. Finally, Zacks Investment Research upgraded Agrium from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Agrium presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $107.60.

Agrium Inc. (NYSE:AGU) is a Canada-based producer and marketer of nutrients for agricultural and industrial markets. Agrium is a retailer of agricultural products and services in the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay and a multi-national producer and wholesale marketer of nutrients for agricultural and industrial markets. The Company operates through its two business units: Retail and Wholesale. Agrium Wholesale owns 16 production facilities in North and South America across the nitrogen, potash and phosphate spectrum; two mines; and a distribution and storage network throughout North America and internationally through Agrium Europe. Agrium Retail operates approximately 1,375 retail locations, 57 terminals, 8 plants and 18 distribution centers in North and South America, as well as Australia.

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