FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) Receives $68.47 Average Price Target from Brokerages

FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seventeen research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $68.47.

A number of research firms have recently commented on FMC. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of FMC from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of FMC from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of FMC from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of FMC from $68.00 to $62.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of FMC from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FMC

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its stake in shares of FMC by 34.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 23,114 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,457,000 after acquiring an additional 5,877 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in FMC by 31.5% during the 4th quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 290,835 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $18,337,000 after purchasing an additional 69,709 shares during the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its position in FMC by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 49,181 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,101,000 after purchasing an additional 1,082 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its holdings in FMC by 661.1% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 149,373 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,418,000 after buying an additional 129,748 shares during the period. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp grew its position in shares of FMC by 133.2% in the 4th quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 16,058 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,012,000 after buying an additional 9,173 shares during the last quarter. 91.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

FMC Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FMC opened at $60.67 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.57 billion, a PE ratio of 5.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.85. FMC has a twelve month low of $49.49 and a twelve month high of $68.72. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $63.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.71.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.08. FMC had a net margin of 33.97% and a return on equity of 7.52%. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. FMC’s revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that FMC will post 3.4 EPS for the current year.

FMC Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. FMC’s dividend payout ratio is 20.96%.

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.