Swiss National Bank Trims Stake in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

Swiss National Bank decreased its stake in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 900,100 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 52,300 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Mosaic were worth $22,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brooklyn Investment Group boosted its position in Mosaic by 110.8% during the fourth quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,117 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 587 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Mosaic during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Tobam bought a new stake in shares of Mosaic in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Mosaic in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of Mosaic by 180,900.0% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,810 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 1,809 shares during the last quarter. 77.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on MOS. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Mosaic from $40.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Mosaic from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Mosaic from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $26.00 to $29.00 in a report on Monday, March 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Mosaic in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $31.00 target price for the company. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their target price on Mosaic from $34.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.64.

Mosaic Price Performance

Shares of MOS opened at $26.52 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The Mosaic Company has a twelve month low of $22.48 and a twelve month high of $33.44. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.47, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.34.

Mosaic Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 6th will be given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. This is a boost from Mosaic’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.32%. Mosaic’s dividend payout ratio is 160.00%.

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.