Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Mosaic (NYSE:MOS)

The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders acquired 15,614 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 77% compared to the typical volume of 8,822 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 2.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,351,351 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $228,018,000 after purchasing an additional 178,844 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Mosaic by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,368,596 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $82,800,000 after buying an additional 150,186 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its stake in Mosaic by 40.6% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,279,200 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $87,817,000 after buying an additional 947,500 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC increased its position in Mosaic by 13.9% during the third quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 2,939,404 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $78,717,000 after buying an additional 359,760 shares during the period. Finally, Donald Smith & CO. Inc. lifted its stake in Mosaic by 32.1% in the third quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 2,751,580 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $73,687,000 after buying an additional 668,347 shares during the last quarter. 77.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on MOS. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on Mosaic in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set a "market perform" rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Mosaic in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Mosaic from $40.00 to $30.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. CIBC initiated coverage on shares of Mosaic in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mosaic has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $33.80.

Mosaic Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of MOS stock traded up $0.35 on Friday, reaching $26.84. 4,510,040 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,919,178. The company has a market capitalization of $8.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.75, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.34. The business's 50 day moving average price is $26.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $26.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Mosaic has a twelve month low of $23.56 and a twelve month high of $33.44.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The basic materials company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.24). The business had revenue of $2.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.17 billion. Mosaic had a net margin of 3.24% and a return on equity of 6.00%. The company's revenue was down 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.68 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Mosaic will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mosaic Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. This is an increase from Mosaic's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Mosaic's payout ratio is currently 74.34%.

Mosaic Company Profile

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.