Swiss National Bank Sells 284,356 Shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

Swiss National Bank cut its stake in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS - Free Report) by 31.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 615,744 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 284,356 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.19% of Mosaic worth $16,631,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its stake in Mosaic by 132.7% during the 1st quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 2,634 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $71,000 after acquiring an additional 1,502 shares in the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board lifted its stake in Mosaic by 32.3% during the 1st quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 56,108 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,515,000 after acquiring an additional 13,688 shares in the last quarter. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. lifted its stake in Mosaic by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. now owns 18,399 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $497,000 after acquiring an additional 1,650 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Mosaic by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,595,452 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $97,113,000 after acquiring an additional 226,856 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. bought a new position in Mosaic during the 1st quarter valued at $1,468,000. 77.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Mosaic

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 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays lifted their price objective on Mosaic from $40.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Mosaic from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Mosaic in a research report on Monday, July 14th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Mosaic from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Mosaic from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $36.42.

Mosaic Stock Up 1.2%

MOS stock traded up $0.37 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $32.47. The stock had a trading volume of 3,387,077 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,360,835. The firm has a market cap of $10.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a 50-day moving average of $35.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $31.01. The Mosaic Company has a 52-week low of $22.36 and a 52-week high of $38.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 0.44.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.71 by ($0.20). Mosaic had a return on equity of 4.74% and a net margin of 8.35%. The company had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.54 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The Mosaic Company will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.