Royal Bank Of Canada Downgrades Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) to Hold

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) was downgraded by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $25.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock. Royal Bank Of Canada’s price target points to a potential upside of 19.30% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also commented on MOS. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Mosaic from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Sunday, July 12th. Rothschild & Co Redburn began coverage on shares of Mosaic in a research note on Friday, June 26th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $30.00 price target for the company. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Mosaic from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Mosaic from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, lowered Mosaic from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $27.00 to $25.00 in a research note on Monday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.06.

Mosaic Stock Down 1.6%

Shares of NYSE MOS opened at $20.95 on Monday. Mosaic has a one year low of $19.80 and a one year high of $36.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $23.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $23.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.66 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.37, a PEG ratio of 5.84 and a beta of 0.91.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The basic materials company reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. Mosaic had a negative net margin of 5.21% and a positive return on equity of 3.77%. The business’s revenue was down 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.51 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Mosaic will post 0.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Mosaic news, SVP Walter Precourt, III sold 23,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.12, for a total transaction of $508,760.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 116,198 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,570,299.76. This represents a 16.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Mosaic

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MOS. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Mosaic during the second quarter worth about $524,484,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Mosaic by 6.2% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,240,050 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $363,110,000 after purchasing an additional 832,914 shares during the last quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. purchased a new position in Mosaic during the 2nd quarter valued at about $163,662,000. Nykredit A S purchased a new position in Mosaic during the 2nd quarter valued at about $108,329,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Mosaic by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,136,118 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $105,471,000 after purchasing an additional 25,109 shares during the last quarter. 77.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Mosaic Company Profile

The Mosaic Company is a global producer and marketer of concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients. Its products are used by farmers to support plant growth, improve yields and replenish essential nutrients in agricultural soils. Mosaic also produces phosphate-based animal feed ingredients and other crop nutrition products.

Mosaic operates an integrated business that includes mining, processing, manufacturing and distribution. Its phosphate operations are primarily located in the United States, while its potash operations include mining assets in Canada and the United States.