Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) Stock Bumped Down to “Sell” by Freedom Broker

Freedom Broker cut shares of Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat reports. They currently have $18.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $17.00.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on MOS. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Mosaic from $23.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 27th. cut shares of Mosaic from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $27.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Mosaic from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Mizuho set a $20.00 target price on shares of Mosaic in a research note on Wednesday, November 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Mosaic in a report on Wednesday, November 4th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.63.

Mosaic Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of MOS stock opened at $22.79 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $7.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 109.48, a PEG ratio of 19.64 and a beta of 0.88. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $21.64 and a 200-day moving average of $23.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. Mosaic has a 1-year low of $16.99 and a 1-year high of $32.25.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 3rd. The basic materials company reported ($0.19) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by ($0.18). Mosaic had a positive return on equity of 0.58% and a negative net margin of 9.43%. The company had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.29 earnings per share. Mosaic’s revenue was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Mosaic will post -0.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Mosaic Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 4th. Mosaic’s dividend payout ratio is presently -24.86%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Walter Precourt, III sold 23,000 shares of Mosaic stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.12, for a total value of $508,760.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 116,198 shares in the company, valued at $2,570,299.76. The trade was a 16.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MOS. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Mosaic in the second quarter valued at $524,484,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Mosaic by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,240,050 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $363,110,000 after buying an additional 832,914 shares in the last quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. acquired a new position in Mosaic during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $163,662,000. Nykredit A S acquired a new position in Mosaic during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $108,329,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,136,118 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $105,471,000 after purchasing an additional 25,109 shares in the last quarter. 77.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Mosaic Company Profile

The Mosaic Company is a producer and marketer of concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients. Its products help farmers supply crops with essential nutrients, and the company also makes phosphate-based animal feed ingredients and products for industrial applications. Mosaic’s operations include phosphate mining and processing in the United States and potash mining in Canada. Through its Brazilian operations, Mosaic Fertilizantes, the company produces, blends and distributes crop nutrients and related products in Brazil and other markets in South America.