FMC (NYSE:FMC) Rating Increased to Overweight at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of FMC (NYSE:FMC - Free Report) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note published on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have $65.00 price target on the basic materials company's stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of FMC from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho decreased their price target on FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of FMC from $75.00 to $66.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on FMC from $79.00 to $69.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, 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, December 18th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $63.25.

FMC Stock Performance

Shares of FMC traded up $1.21 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $54.64. 594,517 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,439,624. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $53.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.01. The company has a market cap of $6.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.70, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.83. FMC has a twelve month low of $47.71 and a twelve month high of $68.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

FMC (NYSE:FMC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. FMC had a net margin of 34.93% and a return on equity of 7.68%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.44 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that FMC will post 3.34 earnings per share for the current year.

FMC Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.25%. FMC's dividend payout ratio is presently 19.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of FMC 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 transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of FMC

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FMC. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of FMC by 4.4% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 37,829 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,177,000 after purchasing an additional 1,589 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of FMC by 9.7% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 721,879 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $41,543,000 after buying an additional 64,055 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank raised its position in shares of FMC by 54.6% during the 2nd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 40,462 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,329,000 after buying an additional 14,289 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in FMC by 10.6% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 11,382 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $655,000 after acquiring an additional 1,092 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in FMC by 42.7% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 20,424 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,175,000 after acquiring an additional 6,110 shares during the period. 91.86% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.