Insider Buying: FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) Insider Buys 5,600 Shares of Stock

FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) insider Ronaldo Pereira acquired 5,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $35.77 per share, with a total value of $200,312.00. Following the purchase, the insider now owns 48,837 shares in the company, valued at $1,746,899.49. This represents a 12.95 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

FMC Trading Up 7.7 %

FMC stock traded up $2.84 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.44. The company had a trading volume of 2,180,591 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,925,869. The stock has a market cap of $4.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. FMC Co. has a 1-year low of $33.80 and a 1-year high of $68.72. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $46.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.54.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The basic materials company reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by $0.14. FMC had a return on equity of 9.67% and a net margin of 8.03%. As a group, analysts expect that FMC Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.88%. FMC’s dividend payout ratio is presently 85.29%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on FMC. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on FMC from $70.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup raised their target price on FMC from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of FMC from $65.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of FMC from $62.00 to $50.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group lowered shares of FMC from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $66.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, FMC has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.23.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FMC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in FMC by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,291,878 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $743,338,000 after buying an additional 180,766 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in FMC by 27.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,343,615 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in FMC by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,375,911 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $212,714,000 after purchasing an additional 321,241 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of FMC by 37.8% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,559,107 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $173,008,000 after buying an additional 977,110 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of FMC by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,995,691 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $145,452,000 after buying an additional 54,017 shares in the last quarter. 91.86% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.