Holocene Advisors LP Acquires 36,154 Shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

Holocene Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) by 25.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 176,444 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 36,154 shares during the quarter. Holocene Advisors LP’s holdings in Mosaic were worth $4,725,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Mosaic in the second quarter worth $3,610,000. Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Mosaic by 6.2% in the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,240,678 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $35,856,000 after purchasing an additional 71,986 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its stake in shares of Mosaic by 131.4% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 38,894 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,124,000 after purchasing an additional 22,084 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Mosaic by 44.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,218,410 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $86,189,000 after purchasing an additional 986,812 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Herr Investment Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Mosaic by 1,318.7% in the second quarter. Herr Investment Group LLC now owns 332,209 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,601,000 after purchasing an additional 308,792 shares in the last quarter. 77.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Mosaic Price Performance

MOS stock opened at $26.72 on Thursday. The Mosaic Company has a 52 week low of $24.11 and a 52 week high of $38.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 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 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.24). The business had revenue of $2.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.17 billion. Mosaic had a net margin of 3.24% and a return on equity of 6.00%. Mosaic’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.68 EPS. Analysts anticipate that The Mosaic Company will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mosaic Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.14%. Mosaic’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.34%.

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.