FMC (NYSE:FMC) Rating Increased to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of FMC (NYSE:FMC) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of FMC from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of FMC from $43.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of FMC from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $49.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, February 14th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of FMC from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of FMC in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $51.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, FMC currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $49.46.

FMC Trading Up 2.8%

Shares of FMC opened at $42.75 on Friday. FMC 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 firm’s fifty day moving average is $39.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $43.73. The stock has a market cap of $5.34 billion, a PE ratio of 15.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.76.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last announced 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 net margin of 8.03% and a return on equity of 9.67%. 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 company posted $0.36 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that FMC will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be given a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.43%. FMC’s payout ratio is currently 88.55%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of FMC by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,291,878 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $743,338,000 after purchasing an additional 180,766 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of FMC by 286.0% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,494,377 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $189,618,000 after purchasing an additional 3,329,974 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of FMC by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,375,911 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $212,714,000 after purchasing an additional 321,241 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of FMC by 1,199.9% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,621,496 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $151,071,000 after purchasing an additional 3,342,888 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of FMC by 37.8% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,559,107 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $173,008,000 after purchasing an additional 977,110 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.