Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 24,464 Shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its holdings in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) by 11.6% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 186,832 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 24,464 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in FMC were worth $12,320,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FMC. Millburn Ridgefield Corp grew its holdings in FMC by 186.2% in the third quarter. Millburn Ridgefield Corp now owns 498 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 324 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of FMC by 90.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 517 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. grew its stake in shares of FMC by 250.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 554 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 396 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in FMC by 56.9% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 678 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in FMC during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $51,000. 91.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.67, for a total transaction of $270,245.43. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 28,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,709,485.83. This represents a 13.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Citigroup reduced their price objective on FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of FMC from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of FMC from $75.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of FMC from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.69.

FMC Stock Performance

FMC stock opened at $49.01 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market cap of $6.12 billion, a PE ratio of 4.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.80. The business has a 50 day moving average of $57.39 and a 200-day moving average of $59.57. FMC Co. has a 12-month low of $47.73 and a 12-month high of $68.72.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. FMC had a return on equity of 7.68% and a net margin of 34.93%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.44 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that FMC Co. will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current year.

FMC Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. FMC’s payout ratio is 19.97%.

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.