Barclays Upgrades FMC (NYSE:FMC) to Overweight

Barclays upgraded shares of FMC (NYSE:FMC) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $65.00 price target on the basic materials company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on FMC. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on FMC from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America raised FMC from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $63.00 to $61.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, KeyCorp cut their target price on FMC from $79.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.25.

FMC Stock Performance

Shares of FMC stock opened at $55.70 on Tuesday. 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 $53.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.95. FMC has a fifty-two week low of $47.71 and a fifty-two week high of $68.72. The firm has a market cap of $6.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 0.83.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.44 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that FMC will post 3.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.17%. FMC’s payout ratio is 19.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,709,485.83. This trade represents a 13.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new stake in FMC in the 4th quarter valued at $208,000. Kempner Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of FMC by 188.1% in the fourth quarter. Kempner Capital Management Inc. now owns 61,362 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,983,000 after acquiring an additional 40,060 shares during the last quarter. Washington Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in FMC by 77.8% during the fourth quarter. Washington Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,600 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $467,000 after acquiring an additional 4,200 shares in the last quarter. tru Independence LLC raised its holdings in FMC by 28.9% during the fourth quarter. tru Independence LLC now owns 104,090 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,060,000 after acquiring an additional 23,360 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in FMC by 77.0% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 34,834 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,693,000 after purchasing an additional 15,152 shares during the last quarter. 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.