The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) have been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the sixteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have assigned a hold recommendation, six have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $33.4615.

Several equities analysts recently commented on MOS shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Mosaic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Mosaic in a report on Thursday. CIBC lowered their price target on shares of Mosaic from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Mosaic from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $37.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Mosaic in a research report on Tuesday. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $28.00 price objective on the stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in shares of Mosaic by 102.3% during the first quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 537 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Mosaic by 7.6% in the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 41,068 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,109,000 after buying an additional 2,889 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its position in Mosaic by 20.0% during the 1st quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 225,271 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,085,000 after buying an additional 37,500 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its position in Mosaic by 37.3% during the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 16,137 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $436,000 after buying an additional 4,382 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Mosaic by 606.2% during the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,389,335 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,526,000 after buying an additional 1,192,602 shares during the last quarter. 77.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Mosaic Price Performance

Mosaic stock opened at $26.05 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.83, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.00. Mosaic has a one year low of $22.36 and a one year high of $38.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 0.44. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $31.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $33.35.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.01. Mosaic had a return on equity of 4.74% and a net margin of 8.35%.The company had revenue of $3.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.87 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.34 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Mosaic will post 2.04 EPS for the current year.

Mosaic Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. Mosaic’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.80%.

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.