First Trust Advisors LP Purchases 413,530 Shares of The Mosaic Company $MOS

First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) by 77.2% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 949,167 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 413,530 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Mosaic were worth $24,204,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Mosaic by 632.6% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,447,324 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $291,348,000 after purchasing an additional 7,294,205 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Mosaic in the 4th quarter worth approximately $103,129,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 28.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,840,398 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $285,235,000 after buying an additional 2,653,969 shares during the last quarter. Merewether Investment Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Mosaic in the second quarter valued at approximately $72,380,000. Finally, Randolph Co Inc bought a new stake in shares of Mosaic in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,264,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MOS has been the topic of a number of research reports. BNP Paribas Exane dropped their target price on shares of Mosaic from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Mosaic from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. HSBC dropped their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Mosaic from $28.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded Mosaic from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.11.

Mosaic Stock Performance

NYSE MOS opened at $23.16 on Wednesday. The Mosaic Company has a twelve month low of $19.80 and a twelve month high of $37.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market cap of $7.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 178.13, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.82. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.84.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 11th. The basic materials company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.15). Mosaic had a net margin of 0.36% and a return on equity of 4.66%. The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.49 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that The Mosaic Company will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mosaic Profile

Mosaic Co is one of the world’s leading producers and marketers of concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients. The company’s primary business activities center on the extraction, processing and distribution of phosphate rock, phosphate-based fertilizers and potash products. These core nutrients are essential components in modern agriculture, supporting crop yields and soil health across a range of farming applications.

In its phosphate segment, Mosaic operates mining and production facilities that convert phosphate rock into concentrated phosphates, finished phosphate fertilizers and feed phosphates for animal nutrition.