FMC (NYSE:FMC) Upgraded at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of FMC (NYSE:FMC) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report released on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Barclays currently has $65.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock.

FMC has been the subject of a number of other research reports. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of FMC from $75.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup lowered their target price on FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Bank of America raised FMC from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $63.00 to $61.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Mizuho lowered their price target on FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of FMC from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, FMC currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.25.

FMC Stock Performance

Shares of FMC stock opened at $55.70 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 0.83. FMC has a 1-year low of $47.71 and a 1-year high of $68.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $53.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.95.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. FMC had a return on equity of 7.68% and a net margin of 34.93%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.44 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that FMC will post 3.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FMC Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. FMC’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.97%.

Insider Transactions at FMC

In related news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.67, for a total value of $270,245.43. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 28,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,709,485.83. This trade represents a 13.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FMC

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its position in FMC by 27.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,271,760 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $417,151,000 after buying an additional 1,343,615 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of FMC by 317.7% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,099,389 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $63,160,000 after acquiring an additional 836,179 shares during the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP boosted its holdings in shares of FMC by 2,129.4% in the 3rd quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 440,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $29,037,000 after acquiring an additional 420,601 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its position in FMC by 2,531.3% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 253,179 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $16,695,000 after acquiring an additional 243,557 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in FMC by 139.6% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 187,028 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,333,000 after purchasing an additional 108,978 shares in the last quarter. 91.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About FMC

FMC Corporation, an agricultural sciences company, provides crop protection, plant health, and professional pest and turf management products. It develops, markets, and sells crop protection chemicals that includes insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides; and biologicals, crop nutrition, and seed treatment products, which are used in agriculture to enhance crop yield and quality by controlling a range of insects, weeds, and diseases, as well as in non-agricultural markets for pest control.