FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.58

FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 28th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.58 per share by the basic materials company on Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.29%.

FMC has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.6% annually over the last three years. FMC has a payout ratio of 55.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect FMC to earn $3.95 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 58.7%.

FMC Stock Performance

NYSE FMC traded down $0.84 on Friday, hitting $36.87. 2,928,334 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,938,329. The company has a market capitalization of $4.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $46.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $55.99. FMC has a 52-week low of $33.80 and a 52-week high of $68.72.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The basic materials company reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. Equities analysts expect that FMC will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at FMC

In other news, EVP Michael Finian Reilly sold 2,958 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.25, for a total transaction of $163,429.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 25,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,407,107. This represents a 10.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada cut FMC from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $78.00 to $47.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on FMC from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on FMC from $70.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on FMC from $62.00 to $50.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on FMC from $65.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.23.

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.