Freedom Capital Downgrades Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) to Strong Sell

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) was downgraded by analysts at Freedom Capital from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report released on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

MOS has been the subject of a number of other reports. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Oppenheimer set a $35.00 target price on shares of Mosaic in a report on Friday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Mosaic from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Mosaic from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Mosaic from $35.00 to $28.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.75.

Mosaic Price Performance

Shares of Mosaic stock opened at $23.65 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.51 billion, a PE ratio of 13.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Mosaic has a 12 month low of $22.36 and a 12 month high of $38.23. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $28.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.18.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by ($0.26). The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.02 billion. Mosaic had a return on equity of 5.80% and a net margin of 4.49%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Mosaic will post 2.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mosaic

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Mosaic by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,123,171 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $942,477,000 after acquiring an additional 461,524 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 13,407,136 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $322,979,000 after purchasing an additional 830,985 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Mosaic by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,174,708 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $317,379,000 after purchasing an additional 240,146 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Mosaic by 28.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,840,398 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $285,235,000 after purchasing an additional 2,653,969 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Mosaic by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,479,395 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $203,916,000 after purchasing an additional 63,822 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.54% of the company’s stock.

About Mosaic

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.