Wells Fargo & Company Has Lowered Expectations for Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) Stock Price

Key Points

• Wells Fargo & Company has lowered its target price for Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) from $38.00 to $34.00, maintaining an "equal weight" rating, which suggests a potential upside of 8.71% from the current price.
• Investor sentiment is mixed, with Barclays raising its target price from $40.00 to $46.00 and maintaining an "overweight" rating, while five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating.
• As of the latest quarter, Mosaic reported earnings of $0.49 per share, beating estimates, but the revenue fell short of expectations, resulting in a 2.2% decline year-over-year.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS - Get Free Report) had its target price cut by equities research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $38.00 to $34.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "equal weight" rating on the basic materials company's stock. Wells Fargo & Company's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 8.71% from the company's current price.

MOS has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Barclays upped their target price on Mosaic from $40.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Mosaic from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, July 5th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Mosaic to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Mosaic from $29.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $36.50.

Mosaic Price Performance

MOS stock traded up $0.35 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $31.28. 2,806,892 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,570,926. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $36.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.58, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.12. Mosaic has a 12 month low of $22.36 and a 12 month high of $38.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 0.44.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS - Get Free Report) last announced 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 firm had revenue of $2.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.70 billion. Mosaic had a return on equity of 4.82% and a net margin of 8.35%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.65 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Mosaic will post 2.04 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Mosaic

In other Mosaic news, SVP Walter F. Precourt III sold 18,000 shares of Mosaic stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.73, for a total transaction of $643,140.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 128,546 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,592,948.58. The trade was a 12.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mosaic

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MOS. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in shares of Mosaic by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 367,115 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $9,024,000 after acquiring an additional 4,783 shares during the last quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Mosaic in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,347,000. Aviva PLC purchased a new position in shares of Mosaic in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,417,000. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in shares of Mosaic by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 744,124 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $18,291,000 after purchasing an additional 78,495 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted 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 valued at $332,005,000 after purchasing an additional 3,058,243 shares during the period. 77.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

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