Royal Bank of Canada Downgrades FMC (NYSE:FMC) to Sector Perform

FMC (NYSE:FMC) was downgraded by equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $47.00 price target on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their previous price target of $78.00. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price indicates a potential upside of 31.82% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on FMC. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of FMC from $79.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Barclays upgraded shares of FMC from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of FMC from $75.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of FMC from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $63.00 to $61.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, FMC currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $57.62.

FMC Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of FMC opened at $35.66 on Wednesday. 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 has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.53. FMC has a 1-year low of $34.00 and a 1-year high of $68.72. The stock has a market cap of $4.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.84.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The basic materials company reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by $0.14. FMC had a net margin of 34.93% and a return on equity of 7.68%. Equities analysts forecast that FMC will post 3.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other FMC news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of FMC stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.67, for a total value of $270,245.43. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 28,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,709,485.83. The trade was 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. Also, EVP Michael Finian Reilly sold 2,958 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.25, for a total transaction of $163,429.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 25,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,407,107. This trade represents a 10.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 7,491 shares of company stock worth $433,898. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of FMC

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp grew its stake in shares of FMC by 186.2% in the third quarter. Millburn Ridgefield Corp now owns 498 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 324 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of FMC by 90.8% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 517 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of FMC by 250.6% in the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 554 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 396 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of FMC in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in FMC in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $51,000. 91.86% of the stock is owned by 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.