4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Mosaic (MOS)

4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Mosaic

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 165,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, fertilizer giant Mosaic (NYSE: MOS ) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Mosaic's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Mosaic facts

Headquarters (Founded)	Plymouth, Minn. (2004)
Market Cap	$19.9 billion
Industry	Fertilizers and agricultural chemicals
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$6.5 billion
Management	CEO James Prokopanko (since 2007) CFO Lawrence Stranghoener (since 2004)
Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years)	27.4%
Cash/Debt	$2.3 billion / $1.36 billion
Competitors	Agrium (NYSE: AGU ) PotashCorp (NYSE: POT )

Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 96.5% of the 2,518 members who have rated Mosaic believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include lemonades and All-Star MarcD10, who is ranked in the top 16% of our community.

Just two weeks ago, lemonades wrote that Mosaic's stock price "looks close to bottoming out." Our CAPS member concludes: "Not only is the stellar price attractive to someone like me, a young investor, but [Mosaic] is supplying fertilizer to a market in which the demand is steadily increasing."

Specifically, Mosaic is the world's biggest producer of phosphate, with about 13% global market share, and the second-largest potash producer behind PotashCorp. Both giants trade at cheapish forward price-to-earnings ratios around 12, while the third fertilizer biggie, Agrium, sports an even more paltry one of 10. All three stocks continue to be inexpensive, highly rated plays on the long-term comeback of global demand growth. With the USDA recently reporting that corn sales have been surging, CAPS members like MarcD10 think Mosaic is in a particularly potent position to benefit:

A growing global demand in the food supply along with an increased interest in ethanol can only benefit [Mosaic]. Even though I don't think ethanol is going to be the next big Alternative energy play, do logistical complications, corn in which it is derived from requires almost 3X the amount of fertilizer that other grains do. Additionally the volatility of this stock is directly link with commodity speculation, offering you many great buying opportunities in these more uncertain times.

What do you think about Mosaic, or any other stock for that matter? If you want to retire rich, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Owning exceptional stocks is a surefire way to secure your financial future, and on Motley Fool CAPS, thousands of investors are working every day to find them. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!

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Fool contributor Brian Pacampara owns no position in any of the companies mentioned. The Fool's disclosure policy always gets a perfect score.

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