West Tower Group LLC Acquires Shares of 10,500 The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

West Tower Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 10,500 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $281,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MOS. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mosaic in the 2nd quarter valued at $3,610,000. Swedbank AB raised its position in Mosaic by 6.2% during the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,240,678 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $35,856,000 after acquiring an additional 71,986 shares during the period. Quarry LP raised its position in Mosaic by 131.4% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 38,894 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,124,000 after acquiring an additional 22,084 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its position in Mosaic by 1,795.5% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,279,022 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $41,496,000 after acquiring an additional 1,211,544 shares during the period. Finally, Herr Investment Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 1,318.7% during the second quarter. Herr Investment Group LLC now owns 332,209 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,601,000 after buying an additional 308,792 shares in the last quarter. 77.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Mosaic Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE MOS opened at $26.22 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $26.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $27.73. The Mosaic Company has a 12 month low of $24.11 and a 12 month high of $38.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.20, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.35.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last posted its 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). Mosaic had a net margin of 3.24% and a return on equity of 6.00%. The company had revenue of $2.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.68 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Mosaic Company will post 2.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Mosaic Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given 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 3.20%. Mosaic’s payout ratio is currently 74.34%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Mosaic 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.