Seaport Res Ptn Issues Pessimistic Outlook for FMC Earnings

FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) – Equities research analysts at Seaport Res Ptn reduced their Q4 2024 earnings per share estimates for FMC in a research report issued on Wednesday, January 22nd. Seaport Res Ptn analyst M. Harrison now expects that the basic materials company will post earnings per share of $1.59 for the quarter, down from their prior estimate of $1.66. The consensus estimate for FMC’s current full-year earnings is $3.34 per share. Seaport Res Ptn also issued estimates for FMC’s Q1 2025 earnings at $0.90 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $1.00 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $0.95 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $1.72 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $5.43 EPS.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on FMC. UBS Group reduced their price objective on FMC from $75.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. Mizuho cut 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. Royal Bank of Canada raised 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. KeyCorp cut their price target 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 cut their price target on FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.25.

FMC Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FMC opened at $55.59 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.94. FMC has a 1-year low of $47.71 and a 1-year high of $68.72. The firm has a market cap of $6.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.44 earnings per share. FMC’s revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given 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 yield of 4.17%. FMC’s payout ratio is 19.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling at FMC

In other news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of FMC stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 28,649 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,709,485.83. The trade was a 13.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of FMC. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of FMC by 27.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,271,760 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $417,151,000 after buying an additional 1,343,615 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of FMC by 317.7% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,099,389 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $63,160,000 after purchasing an additional 836,179 shares during the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP grew its stake in shares of FMC by 2,129.4% in the third quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 440,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $29,037,000 after purchasing an additional 420,601 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its stake in shares of FMC by 2,531.3% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 253,179 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $16,695,000 after purchasing an additional 243,557 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of FMC by 139.6% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 187,028 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $12,333,000 after purchasing an additional 108,978 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.86% 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.