The Goldman Sachs Group Begins Coverage on FMC (NYSE:FMC)

The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of FMC (NYSE:FMC) in a report released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm issued a buy rating and a $51.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Vertical Research raised FMC to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $48.00 target price (down from $61.00) on shares of FMC in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Mizuho reduced their target price on FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group cut FMC from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price objective on FMC from $55.00 to $51.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, FMC presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.14.

FMC Price Performance

Shares of FMC stock opened at $41.78 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $44.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $54.27. FMC has a 52 week low of $33.80 and a 52 week high of $68.72. The company has a market capitalization of $5.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.36, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The basic materials company reported $1.79 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%. As a group, analysts expect that FMC will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.55%. FMC’s dividend payout ratio is 85.29%.

Insider Activity

In other FMC news, Director Carol Anthony Davidson bought 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were purchased 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 owns 6,000 shares in the company, valued at $223,980. This represents a ∞ increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Michael Finian Reilly sold 2,958 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.25, for a total value of $163,429.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 25,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,407,107. The trade was a 10.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of FMC

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of FMC. State Street Corp boosted 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 valued at $417,151,000 after purchasing an additional 1,343,615 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of FMC in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,888,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of FMC by 37.8% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,559,107 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $173,008,000 after purchasing an additional 977,110 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of FMC by 44.8% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,286,177 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $111,131,000 after purchasing an additional 707,727 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of FMC by 48.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,088,235 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $101,509,000 after purchasing an additional 685,995 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.