Scotia Capital Inc. Grows Position in The Mosaic Company $MOS

Scotia Capital Inc. raised its holdings in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) by 395.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 87,556 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 69,873 shares during the quarter. Scotia Capital Inc.’s holdings in Mosaic were worth $3,194,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. raised its stake in shares of Mosaic by 65.7% during the 2nd quarter. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. now owns 157,267 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,682,000 after buying an additional 62,338 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its stake in Mosaic by 204.1% in the 2nd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 43,080 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,572,000 after acquiring an additional 28,912 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Mosaic during the 2nd quarter valued at about $252,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Mosaic by 100.9% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,806,663 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $138,867,000 after acquiring an additional 1,912,064 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sustainable Insight Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Mosaic in the second quarter valued at about $602,000. 77.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Mosaic Price Performance

MOS stock opened at $24.60 on Monday. The Mosaic Company has a 52-week low of $22.36 and a 52-week high of $38.23. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.00.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last released its 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. Mosaic had a return on equity of 4.74% and a net margin of 8.35%.The firm had revenue of $3.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.34 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that The Mosaic Company will post 2.04 EPS for the current year.

Mosaic Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Mosaic’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.80%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MOS. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Mosaic in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho set a $34.00 target price on Mosaic in a report on Monday, October 20th. Wall Street Zen cut Mosaic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, September 13th. Zacks Research downgraded Mosaic from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price objective 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, seven have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.73.

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.