Agrium (AGU) Earning Somewhat Positive Press Coverage, Study Shows

News headlines about Agrium (NYSE:AGU) (TSE:AGU) have trended somewhat positive this week, according to Accern Sentiment. The research group rates the sentiment of news coverage by reviewing more than twenty million news and blog sources. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Agrium earned a media sentiment score of 0.23 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media coverage about the basic materials company an impact score of 47.1347132329463 out of 100, indicating that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the near future.

These are some of the headlines that may have impacted Accern’s scoring:

• Honing in on Shares of Agrium Inc. (NYSE:AGU) and IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) – FLBC News (flbcnews.com)
• Zacks: Brokerages Expect Agrium Inc. (AGU) Will Announce Quarterly Sales of $2.54 Billion (americanbankingnews.com)
• Agrium Inc (AGU) Moves Above Ichimoku Cloud – Sheridan Daily (sheridandaily.com)
• AO Signal in Focus For Agrium Inc (AGU) – Evergreen Caller (evergreencaller.com)
• Is There a Spark Ahead for Either Agrium Inc. (NYSE:AGU) or Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)? – FLBC News (flbcnews.com)

Agrium (AGU) traded up 0.45% during trading on Friday, reaching $96.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 129,557 shares. The company has a 50-day moving average of $98.24 and a 200 day moving average of $95.56. Agrium has a one year low of $87.78 and a one year high of $111.88. The firm has a market cap of $13.39 billion, a PE ratio of 23.39 and a beta of 0.62.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 29th will be given a dividend of $0.875 per share. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.61%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 28th. Agrium’s dividend payout ratio is presently 84.34%.

AGU has been the subject of several research reports. Vertical Research upgraded Agrium from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “buy” rating and issued a $110.00 target price on shares of Agrium in a research note on Thursday, June 29th. AltaCorp Capital restated a “sector perform” rating on shares of Agrium in a research note on Thursday, June 22nd. Scotiabank upgraded Agrium from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, July 10th. Finally, Zacks Investment Research downgraded Agrium from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. The company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $104.31.

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About Agrium

Agrium Inc 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’s segments include Retail and Wholesale. As of December 31, 2016, its Retail business unit marketed crop nutrients, crop protection products, seed, merchandise, application and other agronomic services through 1,500 retail locations in the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.