Xponance Inc. Decreases Stake in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

Xponance Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS - Free Report) by 46.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 27,646 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 23,817 shares during the period. Xponance Inc.'s holdings in Mosaic were worth $747,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of MOS. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Mosaic in the first quarter worth approximately $26,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA bought a new position in shares of Mosaic in the first quarter worth approximately $27,000. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in shares of Mosaic by 102.3% in the first quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,062 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 537 shares in the last quarter. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Mosaic in the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Huntington National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 54.1% during the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 3,374 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 1,185 shares during the last quarter. 77.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Walter F. Precourt III sold 18,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 29th. The shares were 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 $4,592,948.58. This represents a 12.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MOS. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Mosaic to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Mosaic in a report on Monday, July 14th. CIBC upped their target price on shares of Mosaic from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $43.00 target price (up from $39.00) on shares of Mosaic in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $35.58.

Mosaic Stock Up 2.7%

NYSE MOS traded up $0.95 during trading on Friday, reaching $36.22. 4,523,216 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,850,797. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 0.44. The firm has a market cap of $11.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.12. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $35.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $29.93. The Mosaic Company has a 12-month low of $22.36 and a 12-month high of $38.23.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The basic materials company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.04. Mosaic had a net margin of 3.32% and a return on equity of 4.91%. The business had revenue of $2.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.65 EPS. The company's revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Mosaic Company will post 2.04 EPS 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.