The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the nine analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $33.22.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MOS shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Mosaic in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th.

Mosaic Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of MOS stock opened at $26.72 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $26.55 and a 200-day moving average of $27.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Mosaic has a 12-month low of $24.11 and a 12-month high of $38.30. The firm has a market cap of $8.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.65, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.34.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The basic materials company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.24). Mosaic had a return on equity of 6.00% and a net margin of 3.24%. The company had revenue of $2.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.17 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.68 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Mosaic will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Mosaic Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. Mosaic’s payout ratio is 74.34%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Mosaic by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,351,351 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $228,018,000 after purchasing an additional 178,844 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Mosaic by 34.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,337,124 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $183,155,000 after purchasing an additional 1,628,850 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Mosaic by 15.1% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,311,123 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $95,691,000 after buying an additional 435,598 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its position in shares of Mosaic by 40.6% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,279,200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $87,817,000 after buying an additional 947,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Mosaic by 44.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,218,410 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $86,189,000 after buying an additional 986,812 shares in the last quarter. 77.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Mosaic

The Mosaic Company, through its subsidiaries, produces and markets concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients in North America and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Phosphates, Potash, and Mosaic Fertilizantes. It owns and operates mines, which produce concentrated phosphate crop nutrients, such as diammonium phosphate, monoammonium phosphate, and ammoniated phosphate products; and phosphate-based animal feed ingredients primarily under the Biofos and Nexfos brand names, as well as produces a double sulfate of potash magnesia product under K-Mag brand name.