FMC (NYSE:FMC) Upgraded to Hold by StockNews.com

FMC (NYSE:FMC) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on FMC. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of FMC from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America downgraded shares of FMC from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $57.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on FMC from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. BNP Paribas lowered FMC from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $56.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on FMC from $61.00 to $59.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.69.

FMC Price Performance

FMC stock traded down $1.92 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $64.83. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,705,738 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,990,886. The company’s fifty day moving average is $60.99 and its 200-day moving average is $57.84. FMC has a 1 year low of $49.49 and a 1 year high of $112.10. The company has a market capitalization of $8.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The basic materials company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.01. FMC had a return on equity of 12.98% and a net margin of 29.45%. The company had revenue of $918.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.77 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 31.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that FMC will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at FMC

In other news, CFO Andrew D. Sandifer purchased 2,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $59.22 per share, for a total transaction of $127,323.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 50,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,966,211.36. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of FMC by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,521,787 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $915,599,000 after acquiring an additional 176,978 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of FMC by 15.3% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,547,766 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $791,137,000 after purchasing an additional 1,666,096 shares during the last quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of FMC by 105.1% during the fourth quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC now owns 2,961,857 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $186,745,000 after purchasing an additional 1,518,053 shares during the period. Boston Partners grew its holdings in shares of FMC by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,428,010 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $153,030,000 after purchasing an additional 53,408 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in FMC by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,340,777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $156,762,000 after buying an additional 169,224 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.86% of the company’s stock.

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.