Can Nutrien's Cost Savings Drive Sustained Future Momentum?

Nutrien Limited NTR posted a robust third-quarter 2025 performance, which clearly reflects the impact of its cost-saving initiatives. The reduction in costs, including selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses in the third quarter, contributed materially to higher profitability. This reduction demonstrates deliberate cost-discipline in SG&A, logistics and controllable operating costs. As a result, Nutrien converted more of its top-line gains into profitability. 

Cost Optimization Supports Nutrien’s Resilience

The impact of cost-saving was especially visible in the Retail segment. Retail adjusted EBITDA reached $230 million, rising 52% year over year. Nutrien explicitly linked this improvement to lower operating expenses achieved through cost-saving initiatives, combined with stronger margins on proprietary products. This indicates that cost-efficiency is enhancing downstream profitability even when market conditions are uneven across regions. In a quarter where fertilizer pricing and demand dynamics remained mixed, Nutrien’s ability to expand margins while holding costs down highlights the effectiveness of its expense-reduction programs. 

These cost savings strengthen Nutrien’s resilience in a cyclical industry. Management emphasized that cost-efficiencies directly contributed to higher retail adjusted EBITDA, which reached roughly $1.43 billion over the first nine months of 2025. Additionally, Nutrien has tightened capital spending, trimming capex by 10% to $1.3 billion in the first nine months compared with $1.4 billion in the prior-year period, showing that cost-saving supports both near-term flexibility and long-term capital allocation. 

NTR has accelerated operational efficiency and cost savings initiatives, and anticipates achieving around $200 million of total savings in 2025. The company is ahead of schedule on this cost-reduction goal. 

Among its peers, The Mosaic Company’s MOS focus on cost-saving played a central role in strengthening its third-quarter performance. Mosaic delivered meaningful efficiency gains, achieving approximately $150 million in realized cost savings as part of its broader $250 million cost-reduction program targeted for completion by 2026. These efforts helped lower potash cash production costs to $71 per ton from $75 in the previous quarter. Mosaic reported a sharp rise in profitability, with adjusted EBITDA increasing to $806 million from $448 million a year earlier and net income climbing more than threefold to $411 million. The sustained cost-control measures boosted margins, strengthened resilience against commodity price volatility and improved overall financial stability. 

Another fertilizer heavyweight, CF Industries Holdings, Inc. CF, saw higher natural gas costs and SG&A expenses in the third quarter. CF Industries’ average cost of natural gas increased to $2.96 per MMBtu (million metric British thermal unit) in the third quarter from $2.10 a year ago. The same for the first nine months increased to $3.34 per MMBtu from $2.38 in the year-ago period. CF Industries’ SG&A expenses climbed around 13% year over year in the quarter. 

The Zacks Rundown for NTR

Shares of NTR have popped 27.1% year to date compared with its industry’s 7.6% rise. 

From a valuation perspective, NTR is currently trading at a forward 12-month earnings multiple of 12.45, a premium of about 2.4% to the industry’s average of 12.16X. 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NTR for 2025 earnings is pegged at $4.54 and implies year-over-year growth of 31%. 

The consensus estimate for 2025 and 2026 has been trending higher over the past 60 days.  

NTR currently carries a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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