The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS – Get Rating) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 12,400,000 shares, a decrease of 20.8% from the March 15th total of 15,660,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 9,210,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.3 days. Approximately 3.4% of the company’s stock are short sold.

MOS has been the subject of several recent research reports. HSBC downgraded Mosaic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $50.00 to $57.00 in a report on Monday, March 7th. UBS Group upped their price target on Mosaic from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 4th. Berenberg Bank downgraded Mosaic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, February 24th. StockNews.com started coverage on Mosaic in a research note on Thursday, March 31st. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Mosaic from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $83.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.31.

In other news, SVP Mark J. Isaacson sold 40,094 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total transaction of $1,804,230.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO James Calvin O’rourke sold 27,681 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.97, for a total value of $2,075,244.57. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 135,220 shares in the company, valued at $10,137,443.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 87,775 shares of company stock worth $5,319,475 over the last ninety days. 0.57% of the stock is owned by insiders.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in Mosaic by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 28,680,742 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,126,867,000 after purchasing an additional 1,152,402 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Mosaic by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,831,357 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $700,594,000 after purchasing an additional 571,025 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Mosaic by 103.8% during the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,424,382 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $269,060,000 after purchasing an additional 3,780,906 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Mosaic by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,115,137 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $278,902,000 after purchasing an additional 568,257 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Mosaic by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,679,605 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $238,594,000 after purchasing an additional 132,729 shares in the last quarter. 73.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Shares of MOS stock traded down $0.77 on Tuesday, hitting $77.38. 322,054 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,904,177. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.50 billion, a PE ratio of 18.16, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.62. Mosaic has a one year low of $28.26 and a one year high of $79.28. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $60.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $46.54.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.95. The company had revenue of $3.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.93 billion. Mosaic had a return on equity of 18.45% and a net margin of 13.19%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 56.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.57 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Mosaic will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Mosaic announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Tuesday, February 22nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the basic materials company to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Mosaic Company Profile (Get Rating)

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.

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