Proficio Capital Partners LLC Acquires New Stake in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 30,965 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $1,505,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Barnett & Company Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of FMC in the third quarter valued at about $2,265,000. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. increased its position in FMC by 18.7% during 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 buying an additional 9,500 shares during the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its position in FMC by 20.9% during the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 227,328 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $11,050,000 after buying an additional 39,230 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its position in FMC by 27.8% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 43,483 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,867,000 after buying an additional 9,449 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First National Bank of Omaha increased its position in FMC by 85.7% during 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 buying an additional 15,662 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.86% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays lowered their price target on FMC from $65.00 to $48.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Mizuho lowered their price target on FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on FMC from $55.00 to $51.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com downgraded FMC from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, February 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada downgraded FMC from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $78.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $52.23.

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FMC Price Performance

Shares of FMC stock traded up $1.05 during trading on Friday, hitting $41.31. The company had a trading volume of 3,624,074 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,003,712. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.93. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $45.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.04. FMC Co. has a one year low of $33.80 and a one year high of $68.72.

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

FMC Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. FMC's payout ratio is presently 85.29%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other FMC 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 25,468 shares in the company, valued at $1,407,107. This represents a 10.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Carol Anthony Davidson bought 6,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $37.33 per share, with a total value of $223,980.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 6,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $223,980. The trade was a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.85% 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.