Ascent Group LLC Takes $237,000 Position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Ascent Group LLC bought a new position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 3,589 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $237,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barnett & Company Inc. acquired a new position in FMC during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,265,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of FMC by 27.8% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 43,483 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,867,000 after acquiring an additional 9,449 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in FMC by 483.8% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 34,781 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,216,000 after purchasing an additional 28,823 shares during the period. tru Independence LLC acquired a new stake in FMC in the 3rd quarter valued at $5,323,000. Finally, CWM LLC increased its holdings in FMC by 87.4% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 17,662 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,016,000 after purchasing an additional 8,238 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.86% of the company’s stock.

FMC Stock Performance

FMC stock opened at $57.23 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $60.48. FMC Co. has a 12-month low of $50.03 and a 12-month high of $68.72. The firm has a market cap of $7.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.20. FMC had a net margin of 34.93% and a return on equity of 7.68%. The company had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.44 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that FMC Co. will post 3.35 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other FMC news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.67, for a total value of $270,245.43. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 28,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,709,485.83. This trade represents a 13.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on FMC. Citigroup assumed coverage on FMC in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $67.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of FMC from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of FMC from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of FMC from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, FMC presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.00.

FMC Profile

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.