Applied Finance Capital Management LLC Purchases Shares of 7,724 The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

Key Points

• Applied Finance Capital Management LLC made a new investment of approximately $209,000 in The Mosaic Company, purchasing 7,724 shares during the 1st quarter.
• Several institutional investors, including Cetera Investment Advisers and Pinnacle Associates Ltd., significantly increased their stakes in Mosaic, with the total institutional ownership now at 77.54%.
• Equities analysts have raised their price targets for Mosaic, with Wells Fargo increasing theirs from $35.00 to $38.00 and Barclays raising theirs from $40.00 to $46.00, indicating a generally positive outlook for the company's stock.

Applied Finance Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 7,724 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Mosaic in the fourth quarter worth $97,363,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Mosaic by 29.3% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 13,507,131 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $332,005,000 after buying an additional 3,058,243 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Mosaic by 24.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 11,041,218 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $271,382,000 after buying an additional 2,151,426 shares during the last quarter. Criteria Caixa S.A.U. bought a new stake in shares of Mosaic in the fourth quarter worth $36,231,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Mosaic by 606.2% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,389,335 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $37,526,000 after buying an additional 1,192,602 shares during the last quarter. 77.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Mosaic news, SVP Walter F. Precourt III sold 18,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.73, for a total value of $643,140.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 128,546 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,592,948.58. This represents a 12.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Mosaic Price Performance

MOS stock traded down $0.29 during trading on Thursday, hitting $35.94. The company had a trading volume of 1,036,543 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,516,999. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a 50 day moving average of $36.11 and a 200 day moving average of $30.54. The Mosaic Company has a fifty-two week low of $22.36 and a fifty-two week high of $38.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The basic materials company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. Mosaic had a net margin of 3.32% and a return on equity of 4.91%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.65 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that The Mosaic Company will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $43.00 price target (up previously from $39.00) on shares of Mosaic in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Mosaic from $40.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. CIBC boosted their target price on shares of Mosaic from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Mosaic from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Mosaic from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, July 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Mosaic presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $36.75.

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.