Sapient Capital LLC Makes New Investment in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

Sapient Capital LLC acquired a new position in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 7,628 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MOS. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Mosaic by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,368,596 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $82,800,000 after purchasing an additional 150,186 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Mosaic during the fourth quarter worth $1,054,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in Mosaic by 59.5% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 7,682 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $189,000 after acquiring an additional 2,867 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Mosaic by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 122,893 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,933,000 after acquiring an additional 1,489 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Mosaic in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,599,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.54% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MOS shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Mosaic from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, June 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $28.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. CIBC upped their target price on Mosaic from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. BNP Paribas raised Mosaic to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Mosaic from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $34.58.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Walter F. Precourt III sold 18,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.73, for a total value of $643,140.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 128,546 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,592,948.58. This represents a 12.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Mosaic Stock Up 0.1%

MOS traded up $0.04 on Monday, hitting $35.80. The company had a trading volume of 2,745,981 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,745,173. The Mosaic Company has a 52-week low of $22.36 and a 52-week high of $37.69. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $31.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.14.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $2.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.70 billion. Mosaic had a return on equity of 6.00% and a net margin of 3.24%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.65 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that The Mosaic Company will post 2.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mosaic Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 19th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.46%. Mosaic's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 75.86%.

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.