The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) Short Interest Down 16.8% in November

The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,810,000 shares, a decrease of 16.8% from the October 31st total of 8,190,000 shares. Currently, 2.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 4,150,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.6 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MOS has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Mosaic from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Mosaic from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Mosaic from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Mosaic in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Mosaic has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.22.

Mosaic Stock Performance

Shares of MOS stock opened at $26.46 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.42, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.35. Mosaic has a 52 week low of $24.11 and a 52 week high of $38.30. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $27.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 1.19.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The basic materials company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.24). The company had revenue of $2.81 billion during 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 company’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 business posted $0.68 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Mosaic will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Mosaic Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. Mosaic’s payout ratio is 74.34%.

Institutional Trading of Mosaic

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MOS. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 40.0% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,229 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 351 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 23,345 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $625,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares in the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 7,958 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $230,000 after buying an additional 382 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC lifted its position in Mosaic by 23.2% in the 3rd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 2,037 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 384 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional boosted its stake in Mosaic by 1.5% in the second quarter. CX Institutional now owns 28,480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $823,000 after buying an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.54% of the company’s stock.

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.