Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) Upgraded at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) from an underweight rating to a neutral rating in a research note published on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Piper Sandler currently has $30.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $26.00.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on MOS. CIBC initiated coverage on shares of Mosaic in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer began coverage on Mosaic in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Barclays lowered their price target on Mosaic from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Mosaic from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Mosaic in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.09.

Mosaic Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE MOS opened at $27.03 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $25.69 and a 200-day moving average of $26.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Mosaic has a 1-year low of $23.56 and a 1-year high of $33.44. The firm has a market cap of $8.59 billion, a PE ratio of 23.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.34.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The basic materials company reported $0.34 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.17 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.68 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Mosaic will post 2.06 EPS for the current year.

Mosaic Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This is an increase from Mosaic’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.26%. Mosaic’s dividend payout ratio is 74.34%.

Institutional Trading of Mosaic

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in Mosaic by 8.6% during the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 34,964 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,010,000 after acquiring an additional 2,767 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Mosaic by 13.2% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 454,340 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $13,130,000 after purchasing an additional 52,846 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 22.0% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 112,664 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,256,000 after purchasing an additional 20,333 shares during the last quarter. Keene & Associates Inc. boosted its position in shares of Mosaic by 25.8% in the 2nd quarter. Keene & Associates Inc. now owns 12,280 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $355,000 after purchasing an additional 2,520 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Mosaic by 34.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,337,124 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $183,155,000 after buying an additional 1,628,850 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.54% of the company’s stock.

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.