Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Invests $1.96 Million in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 40,357 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,962,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 180,766 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in FMC by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,375,911 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $212,714,000 after purchasing an additional 321,241 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in FMC by 37.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,559,107 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $173,008,000 after purchasing an additional 977,110 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in FMC by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,995,691 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $145,452,000 after acquiring an additional 54,017 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in FMC by 44.8% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,286,177 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $111,131,000 after acquiring an additional 707,727 shares in the last quarter. 91.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on FMC shares. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of FMC from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $48.00 price target (down from $61.00) on shares of FMC in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Vertical Research upgraded FMC to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on FMC from $43.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of FMC from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.46.

FMC Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of FMC stock opened at $38.12 on Wednesday. FMC Co. has a 52-week low of $32.83 and a 52-week high of $68.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.99. The firm has a market cap of $4.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.80.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.10. FMC had a return on equity of 9.67% and a net margin of 8.03%. The company had revenue of $791.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $783.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that FMC Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.09%. FMC’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 88.55%.

Insider Transactions at FMC

In other FMC news, insider Ronaldo Pereira acquired 5,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were purchased 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 approximately $1,746,899.49. The trade was a 12.95% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Carol Anthony Davidson purchased 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $37.33 per share, for a total transaction of $223,980.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $223,980. The trade was a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.67% 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.