Should You Buy Mosaic Co (MOS)?

Is Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS) the right investment to pursue these days? Investors who are in the know are in a bullish mood. The number of long hedge fund bets rose by 1 in recent months.

In today’s marketplace, there are many methods investors can use to monitor publicly traded companies. Two of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can outclass the market by a significant margin (see just how much).

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of incentives for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if you know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a look at the key action encompassing Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS).

How have hedgies been trading Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 39 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 3% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Brookside Capital, managed by Bain Capital, holds the largest position in Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS). Brookside Capital has a $100.5 million position in the stock, comprising 2.2% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Soros Fund Management, managed by George Soros, which held a $98 million position; the fund has 1.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that hold long positions include Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Richard Chilton’s Chilton Investment Company.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Brookside Capital, managed by Bain Capital, initiated the biggest position in Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS). Brookside Capital had 100.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Nick Niell’s Arrowgrass Capital Partners also made a $25 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments, Sander Gerber’s Hudson Bay Capital Management, and Colin Hall and James Davidson’s Long Oar Global Investors.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time period, Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS). These stocks are Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON), CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF), Agrium Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AGU), Syngenta AG (ADR) (NYSE:SYT), and Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (USA) (NYSE:POT). All of these stocks are in the agricultural chemicals industry and their market caps are closest to MOS’s market cap.