HighTower Advisors LLC Trims Stock Position in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

HighTower Advisors LLC lessened its stake in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) by 23.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,173 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 6,977 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Mosaic were worth $598,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MOS. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position 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 worth $183,155,000 after purchasing an additional 1,628,850 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Mosaic by 15.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 435,598 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Mosaic by 44.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,218,410 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $86,189,000 after buying an additional 986,812 shares in the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC grew its position in Mosaic by 13.9% during the third quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 2,939,404 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $78,717,000 after buying an additional 359,760 shares during the period. Finally, Donald Smith & CO. Inc. grew its position in Mosaic by 32.1% during the third quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 2,751,580 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $73,687,000 after buying an additional 668,347 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MOS. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of Mosaic in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective on shares of Mosaic in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Mosaic from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. CIBC started coverage on Mosaic in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Barclays cut their price target 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.40.

Mosaic Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of MOS opened at $23.88 on Friday. The Mosaic Company has a 52-week low of $23.70 and a 52-week high of $37.63. The stock has a market cap of $7.59 billion, a PE ratio of 21.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.34. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $26.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $27.20. 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 (NYSE:MOS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The basic materials company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.24). The business had revenue of $2.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.17 billion. Mosaic had a return on equity of 6.00% and a net margin of 3.24%. The business’s revenue was down 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.68 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that The Mosaic Company will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mosaic Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.52%. Mosaic’s dividend payout ratio is presently 74.34%.

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.