Two Sigma Investments LP Buys 298,657 Shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

Two Sigma Investments LP grew its stake in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) by 13.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,579,846 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 298,657 shares during the quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP’s holdings in Mosaic were worth $63,413,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Mosaic by 29.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Mosaic by 24.2% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 11,041,218 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $271,382,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151,426 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Mosaic by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,621,001 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $218,751,000 after acquiring an additional 269,650 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,171,642 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $127,119,000 after acquiring an additional 287,493 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Mosaic in the 4th quarter valued at $97,363,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Mosaic from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded Mosaic from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. BNP Paribas raised Mosaic to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Finally, CIBC lifted their price target on Mosaic from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Mosaic has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.58.

Mosaic Stock Performance

Shares of MOS stock opened at $35.34 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.27, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $28.27 and a 200 day moving average of $26.85. The Mosaic Company has a 52 week low of $22.36 and a 52 week high of $35.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The basic materials company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.04. Mosaic had a net margin of 3.24% and a return on equity of 6.00%. The firm had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.65 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that The Mosaic Company will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Mosaic Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 19th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.49%. Mosaic’s payout ratio is 75.86%.

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.