Mosaic Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:MOS)

The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors bought 15,903 call options on the company. This is an increase of 93% compared to the average volume of 8,235 call options.

Institutional Trading of Mosaic

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MOS. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Mosaic by 34.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,337,124 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $183,155,000 after buying an additional 1,628,850 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Mosaic by 15.1% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,311,123 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $95,691,000 after buying an additional 435,598 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in shares of Mosaic by 40.6% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,279,200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $87,817,000 after buying an additional 947,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Mosaic by 44.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,218,410 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $86,189,000 after acquiring an additional 986,812 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.54% of the company’s stock.

Mosaic Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MOS opened at $26.75 on Tuesday. Mosaic has a one year low of $23.56 and a one year high of $33.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.67, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 1.19.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last posted 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). The company had revenue of $2.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.17 billion. Mosaic had a return on equity of 6.00% and a net margin of 3.24%. The firm’s revenue was down 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.68 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Mosaic will post 2.07 EPS for the current year.

Mosaic Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This is a boost from Mosaic’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. Mosaic’s payout ratio is currently 77.88%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MOS shares. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Mosaic from $40.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Mosaic in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. CIBC initiated coverage on Mosaic in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.09.

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.