Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Reduces Position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund decreased its holdings in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) by 85.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,213 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 48,570 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in FMC were worth $518,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of FMC. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of FMC by 17.7% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,881,670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $728,745,000 after purchasing an additional 1,634,535 shares during the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its stake in shares of FMC by 175.2% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 835,871 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $55,978,000 after acquiring an additional 532,158 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in FMC by 37.9% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,764,469 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $118,166,000 after buying an additional 484,500 shares during the last quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC raised its holdings in shares of FMC by 43.2% during the third quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC now owns 1,443,804 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $96,692,000 after acquiring an additional 435,404 shares during the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of FMC in the third quarter valued at approximately $17,990,000. Institutional investors own 91.86% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on FMC. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of FMC from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of FMC from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. BNP Paribas cut shares of FMC from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $56.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Roth Mkm began coverage on shares of FMC in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $74.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Bank of America cut FMC from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.75.

FMC Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of FMC stock opened at $59.01 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $7.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.60, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $59.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.52. FMC Co. has a one year low of $49.49 and a one year high of $124.61.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). FMC had a net margin of 29.45% and a return on equity of 12.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.37 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that FMC Co. will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 18th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th will be paid a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.93%. FMC’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Andrew D. Sandifer bought 2,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $59.22 per share, for a total transaction of $127,323.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,966,211.36. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

FMC Profile

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.