Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC Acquires New Position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC bought a new position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,052 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FMC. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in FMC by 35.1% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,061,828 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $322,439,000 after acquiring an additional 1,316,133 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of FMC by 317.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 836,179 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of FMC by 5.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,290,219 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $973,987,000 after purchasing an additional 768,432 shares in the last quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of FMC during the first quarter valued at $37,686,000. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in FMC in the 2nd quarter worth about $33,191,000. Institutional investors own 91.86% of the company’s stock.

FMC Price Performance

NYSE FMC opened at $60.16 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $7.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.43, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.85. FMC Co. has a 12 month low of $49.49 and a 12 month high of $68.72. The company’s 50 day moving average is $63.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $60.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. FMC had a net margin of 33.97% and a return on equity of 7.52%. FMC’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.50 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that FMC Co. will post 3.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on FMC shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of FMC from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of FMC from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Barclays increased their price target on FMC from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Redburn Atlantic raised FMC from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on FMC from $68.00 to $62.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $67.00.

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.