Quest Partners LLC Acquires New Position in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 16,779 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $600,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MOS. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in Mosaic by 6.8% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 27,784 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $989,000 after purchasing an additional 1,767 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Mosaic by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 438,561 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $15,613,000 after buying an additional 5,688 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System grew its stake in Mosaic by 0.4% in the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 640,250 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $22,793,000 after acquiring an additional 2,439 shares during the period. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Mosaic by 7.2% in the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 10,745 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $383,000 after acquiring an additional 722 shares during the period. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Mosaic by 3.4% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 91,361 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,252,000 after purchasing an additional 3,009 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 77.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MOS has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Mosaic from $35.00 to $32.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 6th. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of Mosaic from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Mosaic in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $39.00 price target on the stock. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Mosaic from $34.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, TheStreet lowered shares of Mosaic from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mosaic presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.36.

Mosaic Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of MOS stock opened at $31.76 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.70. The company has a market cap of $10.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.51, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 1.16. The Mosaic Company has a fifty-two week low of $27.83 and a fifty-two week high of $42.81.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $2.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.88 billion. Mosaic had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 8.23%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 25.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.14 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that The Mosaic Company will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Mosaic Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 6th. Mosaic’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.74%.

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.