The Mosaic Company Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.21 (NYSE:MOS)

The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 14th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be paid a dividend of 0.21 per share by the basic materials company on Thursday, December 19th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th.

Mosaic has increased its dividend by an average of 58.7% annually over the last three years. Mosaic has a dividend payout ratio of 32.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Mosaic to earn $2.01 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 41.8%.

Mosaic Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MOS traded up $0.20 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $26.32. 3,365,521 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,354,854. Mosaic has a 1-year low of $24.11 and a 1-year high of $38.30. The company has a market cap of $8.39 billion, a PE ratio of 23.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 1.19. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $27.96.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The basic materials company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.24). Mosaic had a net margin of 3.24% and a return on equity of 6.00%. The business had revenue of $2.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.17 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.68 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Mosaic will post 2.27 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Mizuho lifted their price target on Mosaic from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Mosaic in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Mosaic from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on shares of Mosaic from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.22.

About Mosaic

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.