BMO Capital Markets Cuts FMC (NYSE:FMC) Price Target to $50.00

FMC (NYSE:FMC) had its target price decreased by BMO Capital Markets from $62.00 to $50.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. BMO Capital Markets currently has a market perform rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on FMC. Citigroup upped their price objective on FMC from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays raised FMC from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of FMC from $70.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of FMC from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $78.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of FMC from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $63.00 to $61.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, FMC presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $54.00.

FMC Stock Down 3.2 %

Shares of NYSE FMC opened at $34.51 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market cap of $4.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.84. FMC has a 12-month low of $33.80 and a 12-month high of $68.72. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.37.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The basic materials company reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.65 by $0.14. FMC had a return on equity of 7.68% and a net margin of 34.93%. On average, research analysts expect that FMC will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FMC Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.72%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. FMC’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.29%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Michael Finian Reilly sold 2,958 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.25, for a total transaction of $163,429.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 25,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,407,107. This represents a 10.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.67, for a total transaction of $270,245.43. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 28,649 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,709,485.83. This trade represents a 13.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 7,491 shares of company stock worth $433,898 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FMC. State Street Corp increased its stake in FMC by 27.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,271,760 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $417,151,000 after acquiring an additional 1,343,615 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of FMC by 48.9% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,088,235 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $101,509,000 after purchasing an additional 685,995 shares in the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP increased its position in shares of FMC by 2,129.4% in the third quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 440,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $29,037,000 after purchasing an additional 420,601 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its stake in FMC by 2,531.3% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 253,179 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $16,695,000 after purchasing an additional 243,557 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in FMC by 50.7% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 427,256 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,769,000 after purchasing an additional 143,770 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.86% 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.