Boston Partners Cuts Stock Position in The Mosaic Company $MOS

Boston Partners decreased its stake in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) by 7.1% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,414,462 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 564,918 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners’ holdings in Mosaic were worth $270,466,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vise Technologies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Mosaic during the second quarter valued at $209,000. Allworth Financial LP grew its position in Mosaic by 61.2% during the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,712 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 650 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in Mosaic by 38.3% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 79,605 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,904,000 after purchasing an additional 22,034 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Mosaic by 419.1% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 144,081 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,253,000 after buying an additional 116,323 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CSM Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Mosaic in the second quarter worth approximately $21,656,000. 77.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Mosaic Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of NYSE:MOS opened at $25.73 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.72, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.00. The Mosaic Company has a 52-week low of $22.36 and a 52-week high of $38.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 1.14.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.87 billion. Mosaic had a net margin of 8.35% and a return on equity of 4.74%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.34 EPS. Analysts expect that The Mosaic Company will post 2.04 EPS for the current year.

Mosaic Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on MOS shares. Mizuho set a $34.00 price target on shares of Mosaic in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Barclays reduced their target price on Mosaic from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Oppenheimer set a $40.00 price target on Mosaic in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Wall Street Zen cut Mosaic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 13th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on Mosaic from $49.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.00.

Mosaic Company Profile

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.