Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA Cuts Stake in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA lowered its position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) by 24.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,819 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 3,503 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA’s holdings in FMC were worth $682,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. North Point Portfolio Managers Corp OH boosted its stake in FMC by 67.3% in the fourth quarter. North Point Portfolio Managers Corp OH now owns 118,531 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,473,000 after buying an additional 47,697 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Group LLC boosted its stake in FMC by 58.9% in the third quarter. Manning & Napier Group LLC now owns 2,249,633 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $150,658,000 after buying an additional 833,845 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in FMC by 37.9% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,764,469 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $118,166,000 after buying an additional 484,500 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in FMC by 15.4% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 14,195 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $950,000 after buying an additional 1,889 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in FMC in the third quarter worth approximately $664,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.86% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Andrew D. Sandifer acquired 2,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $59.22 per share, for a total transaction of $127,323.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 50,088 shares in the company, valued at $2,966,211.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.85% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

FMC Price Performance

Shares of FMC stock opened at $59.21 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $58.41 and a 200 day moving average of $59.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company has a market cap of $7.39 billion, a PE ratio of 5.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.87. FMC Co. has a 52 week low of $49.49 and a 52 week high of $125.20.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. FMC had a return on equity of 12.98% and a net margin of 29.45%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.37 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that FMC Co. will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current year.

FMC Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.92%. FMC’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.03%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on FMC. Bank of America lowered FMC from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on FMC from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on FMC from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Roth Mkm began coverage on FMC in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $74.00 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group raised FMC from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $61.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, FMC presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.56.

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.