ING Groep NV Sells 46,928 Shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

ING Groep NV trimmed its stake in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS - Free Report) by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 374,319 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 46,928 shares during the period. ING Groep NV owned about 0.12% of Mosaic worth $10,024,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Mosaic in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,776,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Mosaic during the second quarter valued at $3,610,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Mosaic by 1,815.5% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,682,108 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $346,743,000 after acquiring an additional 10,124,427 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Mosaic by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,357,229 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,277,536,000 after acquiring an additional 1,893,797 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Mosaic by 25.3% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 399,210 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $12,958,000 after acquiring an additional 80,634 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.54% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MOS. 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. Mizuho boosted their target price on Mosaic from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays cut their price target on Mosaic from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Mosaic from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $33.22.

Mosaic Stock Performance

MOS traded up $0.07 on Friday, hitting $26.39. The company had a trading volume of 3,413,658 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,350,625. The stock has a market cap of $8.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The company's fifty day moving average price is $26.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $27.92. The Mosaic Company has a 1-year low of $24.11 and a 1-year high of $38.30.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The basic materials company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.24). Mosaic had a return on equity of 6.00% and a net margin of 3.24%. The firm had revenue of $2.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.17 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.68 earnings per share. Mosaic's quarterly revenue was down 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that The Mosaic Company will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mosaic Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.18%. Mosaic's payout ratio is presently 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.