HighTower Advisors LLC Grows Position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC – Get Rating) by 161.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,850 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,032 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in FMC were worth $2,207,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of FMC by 1,743.6% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,738 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $591,000 after purchasing an additional 4,481 shares during the period. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich raised its holdings in shares of FMC by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 61,046 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,619,000 after purchasing an additional 2,814 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its holdings in shares of FMC by 23.0% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 45,706 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,704,000 after purchasing an additional 8,546 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of FMC by 14.3% in the third quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,085,382 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $326,126,000 after buying an additional 386,465 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AIA Group Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of FMC in the fourth quarter valued at about $61,000. 88.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at FMC

In other FMC news, insider Nicholas Pfeiffer sold 4,421 shares of FMC stock in a transaction on Monday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.70, for a total transaction of $573,403.70. Following the sale, the insider now owns 12,064 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,564,700.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other FMC news, insider Nicholas Pfeiffer sold 4,421 shares of FMC stock in a transaction on Monday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.70, for a total transaction of $573,403.70. Following the sale, the insider now owns 12,064 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,564,700.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Douglas bought 4,121 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 3rd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $115.53 per share, for a total transaction of $476,099.13. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 41,672 shares in the company, valued at $4,814,366.16. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,376 shares of company stock valued at $1,465,016 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

FMC Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE FMC opened at $106.64 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $13.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 0.82. FMC Co. has a 12-month low of $98.24 and a 12-month high of $134.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $117.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $123.90.

FMC (NYSE:FMC – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $1.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.43 billion. FMC had a return on equity of 27.91% and a net margin of 12.51%. The business’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.88 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that FMC Co. will post 7.76 EPS for the current year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 29th. FMC’s payout ratio is currently 40.49%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on FMC from $148.00 to $142.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on FMC from $140.00 to $136.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on FMC from $155.00 to $159.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 14th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on FMC from $140.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. Finally, Redburn Partners upgraded FMC from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, March 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $143.38.

FMC Company Profile

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FMC Corp. is an agricultural sciences company, which engages in the provision of solutions to growers and development of pipeline in crop protection, plant health, precision agriculture, and professional pest, and turf management. It offers insect control products under the Rynaxypyr and Cyazypyr brands, herbicides under the Authority, Boral, Centium, Command, and Gamit brands, insecticides under the Talstar and Hero brands, flutriafol-based fungicides, and bionematicides under the Quartzo and Presence brands.