FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) Receives $71.75 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the seventeen analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $71.75.

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Bank of America downgraded shares of FMC from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Roth Mkm initiated coverage on FMC in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $74.00 price target on the stock. BNP Paribas cut FMC from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $56.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Loop Capital raised their target price on shares of FMC from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of FMC from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Andrew D. Sandifer purchased 2,150 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $59.22 per share, with a total value of $127,323.00. Following the purchase, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,088 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,966,211.36. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FMC

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FMC. North Point Portfolio Managers Corp OH increased its stake in FMC by 67.3% in the 4th quarter. North Point Portfolio Managers Corp OH now owns 118,531 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,473,000 after purchasing an additional 47,697 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in shares of FMC by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 115,182 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,262,000 after buying an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Group LLC raised its stake in shares of FMC by 58.9% during the 3rd quarter. Manning & Napier Group LLC now owns 2,249,633 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $150,658,000 after buying an additional 833,845 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of FMC by 37.9% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,764,469 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $118,166,000 after buying an additional 484,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in FMC by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 14,195 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $950,000 after acquiring an additional 1,889 shares during the last quarter. 91.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

FMC Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FMC opened at $57.82 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.22 billion, a PE ratio of 5.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.87. FMC has a fifty-two week low of $49.49 and a fifty-two week high of $124.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.52.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. FMC had a net margin of 29.45% and a return on equity of 12.98%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.37 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that FMC will post 3.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.01%. FMC’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.03%.

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.