Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates Sector Perform Rating for Mosaic (NYSE:MOS)

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "sector perform" rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $30.00 target price on the basic materials company's stock. Royal Bank of Canada's price target would suggest a potential upside of 13.98% from the stock's previous close.

MOS has been the subject of several other reports. Barclays dropped their price objective on Mosaic from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 11th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Mosaic from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Mosaic presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $33.22.

Mosaic Stock Performance

Shares of Mosaic stock traded up $0.20 during trading on Thursday, reaching $26.32. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,365,531 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,354,862. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The business's 50-day moving average price is $26.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.96. Mosaic has a 52 week low of $24.11 and a 52 week high of $38.30. The firm has a market cap of $8.39 billion, a PE ratio of 23.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.35.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The basic materials company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.24). Mosaic had a net margin of 3.24% and a return on equity of 6.00%. The business had revenue of $2.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.17 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Mosaic will post 2.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Mosaic

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Mosaic by 1,815.5% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,682,108 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $346,743,000 after purchasing an additional 10,124,427 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Mosaic by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,357,229 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,277,536,000 after buying an additional 1,893,797 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Mosaic by 34.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,337,124 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $183,155,000 after acquiring an additional 1,628,850 shares during the period. Boston Partners increased its holdings in Mosaic by 1,795.5% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,279,022 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $41,496,000 after acquiring an additional 1,211,544 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Mosaic in the 1st quarter valued at about $37,936,000. 77.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.