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

Shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the thirteen analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have issued a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $40.27.

A number of brokerages recently commented on MOS. Mizuho downgraded Mosaic from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $42.00 to $34.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Mosaic from $54.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Mosaic from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Mosaic in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $39.00 price target on the stock. Finally, TheStreet lowered shares of Mosaic from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Mosaic by 3.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,792,687 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $313,020,000 after purchasing an additional 268,966 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Mosaic by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,107,545 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $217,429,000 after acquiring an additional 424,063 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Mosaic by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,969,039 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $141,829,000 after purchasing an additional 189,706 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,824,263 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $136,641,000 after purchasing an additional 186,337 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in Mosaic by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,062,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $109,042,000 after buying an additional 107,011 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.54% of the company’s stock.

Mosaic Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:MOS opened at $30.28 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a 50 day moving average of $31.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $33.34. Mosaic has a 52-week low of $29.25 and a 52-week high of $43.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by ($0.11). Mosaic had a net margin of 8.51% and a return on equity of 9.69%. The firm had revenue of $3.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.74 earnings per share. Mosaic’s revenue for the quarter was down 29.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Mosaic will post 2.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mosaic Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 6th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 6th. Mosaic’s payout ratio is 24.07%.

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.