FMC (NYSE:FMC) Price Target Cut to $50.00 by Analysts at BMO Capital Markets

FMC (NYSE:FMC) had its target price dropped by equities researchers at BMO Capital Markets from $62.00 to $50.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “market perform” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ target price would indicate a potential upside of 40.75% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on FMC. KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of FMC from $79.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Barclays raised shares of FMC from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Bank of America upgraded shares of FMC from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $63.00 to $61.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on FMC from $70.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price objective on FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, FMC presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $58.62.

FMC Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FMC traded down $18.52 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $35.52. 8,769,122 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,785,391. The firm has a market cap of $4.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.05, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.84. FMC has a twelve month low of $34.00 and a twelve month high of $68.72. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $53.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The basic materials company reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.65 by $0.14. FMC had a net margin of 34.93% and a return on equity of 7.68%. As a group, analysts anticipate that FMC will post 3.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Michael Finian Reilly sold 2,958 shares of the company’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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,407,107. This represents a 10.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.67, for a total transaction of $270,245.43. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 28,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,709,485.83. This trade represents a 13.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 7,491 shares of company stock valued at $433,898 over the last 90 days. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FMC

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Commerce Bank increased its stake in FMC by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 5,135 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $339,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the period. WP Advisors LLC increased its stake in FMC by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. WP Advisors LLC now owns 6,193 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $301,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. International Private Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of FMC by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. International Private Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,604 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $272,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of FMC by 9.9% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,620 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $127,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of FMC by 90.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 517 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 246 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.