ING Groep NV Decreases Stake in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

ING Groep NV lessened its holdings in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) by 11.1% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 374,319 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 46,928 shares during the period. ING Groep NV’s holdings in Mosaic were worth $10,024,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Mosaic by 1,815.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,682,108 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $346,743,000 after purchasing an additional 10,124,427 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Mosaic by 5.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,357,229 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,277,536,000 after buying an additional 1,893,797 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Mosaic by 34.6% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,337,124 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $183,155,000 after buying an additional 1,628,850 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of Mosaic by 1,795.5% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,279,022 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $41,496,000 after acquiring an additional 1,211,544 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Mosaic during the 1st quarter worth approximately $37,936,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.54% of the company’s stock.

Mosaic Stock Up 0.8 %

MOS stock opened at $26.32 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $26.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.29, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.35. The Mosaic Company has a one year low of $24.11 and a one year high of $38.30.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The basic materials company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.24). The business had revenue of $2.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.17 billion. Mosaic had a net margin of 3.24% and a return on equity of 6.00%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.68 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Mosaic Company will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

Mosaic Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.19%. Mosaic’s payout ratio is 74.34%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on MOS shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Mosaic in a report on Thursday. Barclays cut their price target on Mosaic from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Mosaic from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $33.22.

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.