Vontobel Holding Ltd. Trims Stake in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. cut its position in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) by 32.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,093 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 13,735 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Mosaic were worth $1,004,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bornite Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Mosaic during the first quarter worth approximately $13,300,000. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in Mosaic by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 189,494 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $12,614,000 after purchasing an additional 12,679 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 7.9% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 20,546 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,366,000 after buying an additional 1,507 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service acquired a new stake in shares of Mosaic during the first quarter worth about $30,360,000. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 55.4% during the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 312,013 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,749,000 after buying an additional 111,236 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.54% of the company’s stock.

Mosaic Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of MOS opened at $31.00 on Friday. The Mosaic Company has a 1-year low of $29.25 and a 1-year high of $45.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.57. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.43. The stock has a market cap of $9.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.50.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $3.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. Mosaic had a return on equity of 9.69% and a net margin of 8.51%. The business’s revenue was down 29.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.74 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that The Mosaic Company will post 2.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mosaic Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 6th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.71%. Mosaic’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.07%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MOS. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Mosaic from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. TheStreet cut shares of Mosaic from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Mosaic from $54.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Mizuho downgraded shares of Mosaic from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Mosaic in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $39.00 target price on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.27.

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.