The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) Shares Bought by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 190,195 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 14,967 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Mosaic were worth $5,093,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Mosaic by 1,815.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,682,108 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $346,743,000 after purchasing an additional 10,124,427 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Mosaic by 34.6% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,337,124 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $183,155,000 after buying an additional 1,628,850 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 1,795.5% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,279,022 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $41,496,000 after buying an additional 1,211,544 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Mosaic during the 1st quarter worth approximately $37,936,000. Finally, Donald Smith & CO. Inc. boosted its holdings in Mosaic by 84.7% in the 2nd quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 2,083,233 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $60,205,000 after acquiring an additional 955,199 shares during the period. 77.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Mosaic Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE:MOS opened at $26.03 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 1.19. The company has a market capitalization of $8.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.35. The Mosaic Company has a one year low of $24.11 and a one year high of $38.30. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $27.79.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $2.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.68 earnings per share. Mosaic’s revenue was down 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that The Mosaic Company will post 2.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mosaic Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.23%. Mosaic’s payout ratio is currently 74.34%.

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.