Barclays Upgrades FMC (NYSE:FMC) to “Overweight”

FMC (NYSE:FMC) was upgraded by investment analysts at Barclays from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage presently has a $65.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock. Barclays‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 21.54% from the stock’s previous close.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Bank of America raised shares of FMC from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $63.00 to $61.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. KeyCorp decreased their target price on FMC from $79.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on FMC from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup lowered their price objective on FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.25.

FMC Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FMC opened at $53.48 on Tuesday. FMC has a twelve month low of $47.71 and a twelve month high of $68.72. The company has a market cap of $6.68 billion, a PE ratio of 4.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.83. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $53.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.01. 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) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.20. FMC had a return on equity of 7.68% and a net margin of 34.93%. The business had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.44 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that FMC will post 3.34 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.67, for a total value of $270,245.43. Following the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FMC

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Millburn Ridgefield Corp boosted its stake in shares of FMC by 186.2% during the third quarter. Millburn Ridgefield Corp now owns 498 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 324 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in FMC by 90.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 517 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. boosted its position in FMC by 250.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 554 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 396 shares during the period. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in FMC during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $51,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in FMC in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $52,000. Institutional investors own 91.86% of the company’s stock.

FMC Company 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.