Bank of America Reaffirms Underperform Rating for FMC (NYSE:FMC)

FMC (NYSE:FMC)‘s stock had its “underperform” rating reissued by analysts at Bank of America in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $48.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $61.00. Bank of America‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 34.21% from the stock’s previous close.

FMC has been the topic of several other research reports. KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of FMC from $79.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded FMC from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $78.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group reduced their target price on FMC from $75.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays upgraded FMC from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, FMC has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $57.62.

FMC Price Performance

FMC stock traded down $18.28 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $35.77. 11,148,905 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,860,776. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.09. FMC has a 12-month low of $34.00 and a 12-month high of $68.72. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $53.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.85. The company has a market capitalization of $4.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.08, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.84.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at FMC

In related news, EVP Michael Finian Reilly sold 2,958 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.25, for a total transaction of $163,429.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 25,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,407,107. This trade represents a 10.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.67, for a total transaction of $270,245.43. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 28,649 shares in the company, valued at $1,709,485.83. This represents a 13.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 7,491 shares of company stock valued at $433,898 over the last three months. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of FMC

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Versor Investments LP grew its stake in FMC by 108.6% during the 4th quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 14,809 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $720,000 after purchasing an additional 7,709 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of FMC in the fourth quarter worth $1,505,000. Convergence Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of FMC by 18.2% in the fourth quarter. Convergence Financial LLC now owns 11,599 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $564,000 after buying an additional 1,786 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 685,995 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Skylands Capital LLC boosted its stake in FMC by 33.7% during the 4th quarter. Skylands Capital LLC now owns 340,775 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $16,565,000 after acquiring an additional 85,950 shares during the last quarter. 91.86% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.