Pacer Advisors Inc. Purchases 24,281 Shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)

Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) by 49.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 73,807 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 24,281 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Mosaic were worth $1,814,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in Mosaic by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 837,666 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,590,000 after acquiring an additional 27,329 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Mosaic by 31.0% during the 4th quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,287 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $253,000 after acquiring an additional 2,436 shares during the last quarter. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. grew its holdings in Mosaic by 56.6% during the 4th quarter. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. now owns 16,749 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $412,000 after acquiring an additional 6,051 shares during the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. bought a new stake in Mosaic during the 4th quarter worth about $2,983,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in Mosaic by 84.2% during the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 21,444 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $527,000 after acquiring an additional 9,805 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.54% of the company’s stock.

Mosaic Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MOS opened at $27.89 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.34. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $26.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $26.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 0.49. The Mosaic Company has a fifty-two week low of $23.56 and a fifty-two week high of $33.44.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $2.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.17 billion. Mosaic had a net margin of 3.24% and a return on equity of 6.00%. The business’s revenue was down 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.68 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Mosaic Company will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Mosaic Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is an increase from Mosaic’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.16%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 6th. Mosaic’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on MOS shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Mosaic from $40.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Barclays downgraded shares of Mosaic from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $30.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. CIBC assumed coverage on shares of Mosaic in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Mosaic from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of Mosaic in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $33.80.

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.