FMC (NYSE:FMC) Rating Increased to Neutral at Bank of America

FMC (NYSE:FMC) was upgraded by analysts at Bank of America from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat reports. The firm presently has a $61.00 price target on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their previous price target of $63.00. Bank of America‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 14.08% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on FMC. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on FMC from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of FMC from $79.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. 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. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of FMC from $75.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.25.

FMC Price Performance

FMC stock opened at $53.47 on Tuesday. FMC has a 12-month low of $47.71 and a 12-month high of $68.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $54.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $59.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.67 billion, a PE ratio of 4.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.83.

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

Insider Activity at FMC

In related news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 28,649 shares in the company, valued at $1,709,485.83. The trade was a 13.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.85% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FMC

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp raised its position in FMC by 27.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,271,760 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $417,151,000 after acquiring an additional 1,343,615 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of FMC by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,136,344 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $74,931,000 after purchasing an additional 20,350 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 836,179 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in FMC by 9.7% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 721,879 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $41,543,000 after buying an additional 64,055 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New South Capital Management Inc. grew its position in FMC by 1.5% during the third quarter. New South Capital Management Inc. now owns 665,979 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $43,915,000 after buying an additional 9,834 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.