Everence Capital Management Inc. Takes $361,000 Position in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 10,110 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $361,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Bornite Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Mosaic in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $13,300,000. Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 189,494 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,614,000 after buying an additional 12,679 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 7.9% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 20,546 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,366,000 after buying an additional 1,507 shares during the period. National Pension Service purchased a new position in Mosaic in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $30,360,000. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Mosaic by 55.4% in the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 312,013 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,749,000 after purchasing an additional 111,236 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. TheStreet downgraded Mosaic from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. Mizuho downgraded Mosaic from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Mosaic from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Scotiabank raised Mosaic from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on Mosaic in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $39.00 price target for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.27.

Mosaic Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MOS opened at $30.47 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $9.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The Mosaic Company has a 52 week low of $29.25 and a 52 week high of $45.97. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $31.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.48.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by ($0.11). The business had revenue of $3.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.09 billion. Mosaic had a net margin of 8.51% and a return on equity of 9.69%. Mosaic’s revenue for the quarter was down 29.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.74 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that The Mosaic Company will post 2.81 EPS for the current year.

Mosaic Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 6th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 6th. Mosaic’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.07%.

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.