FMC (NYSE:FMC) Lowered to Sell at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of FMC (NYSE:FMC) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Roth Mkm assumed coverage on shares of FMC in a report on Thursday, January 4th. They issued a buy rating and a $74.00 price target for the company. Bank of America lowered shares of FMC from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of FMC from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of FMC from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $56.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of FMC in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a peer perform rating on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $71.75.

FMC Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FMC opened at $56.94 on Thursday. FMC has a twelve month low of $49.49 and a twelve month high of $124.61. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.31. The company has a market capitalization of $7.11 billion, a PE ratio of 5.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.25 billion. FMC had a return on equity of 12.98% and a net margin of 29.45%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.37 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that FMC will post 3.88 EPS for the current year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.07%. FMC’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Andrew D. Sandifer purchased 2,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $59.22 per share, with a total value of $127,323.00. Following the purchase, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,088 shares in the company, valued at $2,966,211.36. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FMC

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. North Point Portfolio Managers Corp OH boosted its stake in shares of FMC by 67.3% in the 4th quarter. North Point Portfolio Managers Corp OH now owns 118,531 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,473,000 after purchasing an additional 47,697 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in shares of FMC by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 115,182 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,262,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of FMC by 58.9% in the 3rd quarter. Manning & Napier Group LLC now owns 2,249,633 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $150,658,000 after purchasing an additional 833,845 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of FMC by 37.9% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,764,469 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $118,166,000 after purchasing an additional 484,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of FMC by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 14,195 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $950,000 after purchasing an additional 1,889 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.86% of the company’s stock.

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.