FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the fifteen research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $68.00.

FMC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on FMC from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of FMC from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of FMC from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Mizuho lifted their price objective on FMC from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on FMC from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th.

FMC Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FMC opened at $59.50 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $60.68. FMC has a 12 month low of $50.03 and a 12 month high of $68.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.12, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.85.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.20. FMC had a net margin of 34.93% and a return on equity of 7.68%. The company had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.44 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that FMC will post 3.35 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other FMC news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.67, for a total transaction of $270,245.43. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FMC

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of FMC by 27.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,271,760 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $417,151,000 after purchasing an additional 1,343,615 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in FMC by 35.1% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,061,828 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $322,439,000 after buying an additional 1,316,133 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in FMC by 317.7% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,099,389 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $63,160,000 after buying an additional 836,179 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of FMC in the second quarter worth $33,191,000. Finally, Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP increased its position in shares of FMC by 2,129.4% during the third 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 during the period. 91.86% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.