Barclays PLC Increases Stock Position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Barclays PLC increased its position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC - Free Report) by 17.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 310,378 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 45,752 shares during the period. Barclays PLC owned approximately 0.25% of FMC worth $20,465,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp raised its position in FMC by 27.3% during the third 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. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of FMC by 317.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,099,389 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $63,160,000 after purchasing an additional 836,179 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in FMC in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,191,000. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP lifted its stake in FMC by 2,129.4% in the 3rd quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 440,353 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $29,037,000 after buying an additional 420,601 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in FMC by 116.8% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 555,095 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $31,946,000 after buying an additional 299,097 shares during the last quarter. 91.86% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on FMC shares. Citigroup began coverage on FMC in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $67.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price 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. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on shares of FMC from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, FMC presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $68.00.

FMC Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of FMC traded down $1.00 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $53.50. The company had a trading volume of 2,057,970 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,648,530. The stock has a market cap of $6.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.60, 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. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $60.17. FMC Co. has a fifty-two week low of $50.03 and a fifty-two week high of $68.72.

FMC (NYSE:FMC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.04 billion. FMC had a return on equity of 7.68% and a net margin of 34.93%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.44 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that FMC Co. will post 3.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.34%. FMC's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.97%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other FMC news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $1,709,485.83. The trade was a 13.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.85% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.