Ameriprise Financial Inc. Sells 75,696 Shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

Ameriprise Financial Inc. lowered its position in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS - Free Report) by 13.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 468,445 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 75,696 shares during the quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned 0.15% of Mosaic worth $11,514,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. DoubleLine ETF Adviser LP bought a new stake in Mosaic during the fourth quarter worth $901,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its stake in shares of Mosaic by 17.3% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 16,205 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $398,000 after acquiring an additional 2,390 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its stake in shares of Mosaic by 27.4% in the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 423,363 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $10,406,000 after acquiring an additional 90,963 shares in the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Mosaic by 985.1% in the fourth quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 955,804 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $23,494,000 after acquiring an additional 867,722 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Mosaic by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,171,642 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $127,119,000 after acquiring an additional 287,493 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.54% of the company's stock.

Mosaic Price Performance

Shares of MOS traded up $0.12 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $35.13. The company had a trading volume of 2,932,756 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,708,614. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $29.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.06. The Mosaic Company has a 1-year low of $22.36 and a 1-year high of $35.96. 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 $11.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.09.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The basic materials company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. Mosaic had a net margin of 3.24% and a return on equity of 6.00%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.65 EPS. Analysts expect that The Mosaic Company will post 2.04 EPS for the current year.

Mosaic Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 19th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.50%. Mosaic's payout ratio is 75.86%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on MOS. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Mosaic from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Scotiabank reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Mosaic in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $40.00 price objective (up from $33.00) on shares of Mosaic in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $29.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $33.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $34.58.

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.