Legal & General Group Plc Boosts Stock Position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) by 8.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 217,734 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 17,487 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in FMC were worth $10,584,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of FMC. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. boosted its position in shares of FMC by 18.7% in the 3rd quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 60,200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,970,000 after purchasing an additional 9,500 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. raised its stake in FMC by 20.9% in the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 227,328 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $11,050,000 after buying an additional 39,230 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in FMC by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,164,403 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $56,602,000 after acquiring an additional 28,059 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management grew its stake in shares of FMC by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 164,887 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,015,000 after acquiring an additional 14,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of FMC during the fourth quarter valued at about $5,573,000. 91.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho set a $46.00 price objective on shares of FMC in a report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on FMC from $62.00 to $50.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $48.00 price objective (down from $61.00) on shares of FMC in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of FMC from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $78.00 to $47.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Vertical Research raised shares of FMC to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.31.

FMC Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of FMC stock opened at $37.36 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $38.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $50.27. FMC Co. has a 1 year low of $32.83 and a 1 year high of $68.72. 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 company has a market capitalization of $4.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.74, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.83.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The basic materials company reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. Analysts forecast that FMC Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 6.21%. FMC’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.29%.

Insider Activity

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 value of $163,429.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 25,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ronaldo Pereira bought 5,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $35.77 per share, with a total value of $200,312.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 48,837 shares in the company, valued at $1,746,899.49. This represents a 12.95 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 0.67% of the company’s stock.

FMC 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.