Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Stock Position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) by 11.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 186,832 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 24,464 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.15% of FMC worth $12,320,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of FMC. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $322,439,000 after buying an additional 1,316,133 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in FMC by 317.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,099,389 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $63,160,000 after acquiring an additional 836,179 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of FMC by 5.3% in the 1st 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 in the 1st quarter worth approximately $37,686,000. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of FMC during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,191,000. Institutional investors own 91.86% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on FMC shares. Citigroup started coverage on FMC in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $67.00 target price for the company. Mizuho raised their price objective on FMC from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on FMC from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of FMC from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of FMC from $81.00 to $79.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.00.

FMC Trading Down 2.0 %

NYSE FMC opened at $54.39 on Friday. FMC Co. has a 1 year low of $50.03 and a 1 year high of $68.72. 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 company has a market capitalization of $6.79 billion, a PE ratio of 4.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a fifty day moving average of $62.22 and a 200 day moving average of $60.97.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.20. FMC had a return on equity of 7.68% and a net margin of 34.93%. The firm had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.44 earnings per share. FMC’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that FMC Co. will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other FMC news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 28,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 accessible through this hyperlink. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

FMC Company 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.