Citigroup Initiates Coverage on FMC (NYSE:FMC)

Equities researchers at Citigroup started coverage on shares of FMC (NYSE:FMC) in a research report issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage set a “neutral” rating and a $67.00 price target on the basic materials company’s stock. Citigroup’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 8.96% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on FMC. Redburn Atlantic upgraded FMC from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on FMC from $68.00 to $62.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on FMC from $81.00 to $79.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of FMC from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of FMC from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, FMC presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $67.00.

FMC Stock Performance

NYSE FMC opened at $61.49 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.07. FMC has a 1-year low of $49.49 and a 1-year high of $68.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.85. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $63.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $60.76.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.08. FMC had a net margin of 33.97% and a return on equity of 7.52%. The firm had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.50 earnings per share. FMC’s revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that FMC will post 3.4 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of FMC

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FMC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased 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 acquiring an additional 768,432 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in FMC by 35.1% in the first 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 purchasing an additional 1,316,133 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in FMC by 317.7% during the second 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 last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of FMC by 11.6% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 903,274 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $57,538,000 after purchasing an additional 93,892 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of FMC by 2.1% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 858,129 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $49,385,000 after purchasing an additional 17,381 shares during the period. 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.