HighTower Advisors LLC Trims Stock Holdings in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

HighTower Advisors LLC lessened its position in shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) by 33.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,329 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 3,610 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in FMC were worth $485,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its position in FMC by 90.8% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 517 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. lifted its stake in FMC by 250.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 554 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 396 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of FMC in the third quarter worth $51,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of FMC during the third quarter worth $52,000. 91.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other FMC news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.67, for a total value of $270,245.43. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 28,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,709,485.83. This trade represents a 13.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on FMC shares. Mizuho increased their price target on FMC from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on FMC from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of FMC from $75.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, FMC has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.69.

FMC Price Performance

NYSE:FMC opened at $50.15 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $58.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $59.88. FMC Co. has a 12 month low of $47.73 and a 12 month high of $68.72. The firm has a market cap of $6.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

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

FMC Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.63%. FMC’s payout ratio is 19.97%.

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.