New York State Teachers Retirement System Buys 12,866 Shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC - Free Report) by 11.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 121,969 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 12,866 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned about 0.10% of FMC worth $5,929,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barnett & Company Inc. bought a new stake in shares of FMC in the third quarter worth $2,265,000. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. lifted its position in shares of FMC by 18.7% in the third quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 60,200 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,970,000 after purchasing an additional 9,500 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. lifted its position in shares of FMC by 20.9% in the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 227,328 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $11,050,000 after purchasing an additional 39,230 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of FMC by 27.8% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 43,483 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,867,000 after purchasing an additional 9,449 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First National Bank of Omaha lifted its position in shares of FMC by 85.7% in the third quarter. First National Bank of Omaha now owns 33,935 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,238,000 after purchasing an additional 15,662 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.86% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley cut 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 report on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of FMC from $62.00 to $50.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com lowered shares of FMC from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of FMC from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of FMC from $55.00 to $51.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $52.23.

FMC Price Performance

NYSE:FMC traded up $0.11 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $38.30. The stock had a trading volume of 2,476,130 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,997,835. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $47.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $56.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.84. FMC Co. has a one year low of $33.80 and a one year high of $68.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.64.

FMC (NYSE:FMC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The basic materials company reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.65 by $0.14. FMC had a return on equity of 9.67% and a net margin of 8.03%. As a group, analysts expect that FMC Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.06%. FMC's dividend payout ratio is presently 85.29%.

Insider Activity at FMC

In other news, EVP Michael Finian Reilly sold 2,958 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.25, for a total value of $163,429.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 25,468 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,407,107. This represents a 10.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.85% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

FMC 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.