Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Boosts Stock Holdings in FMC Corporation (NYSE:FMC)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund increased its stake in FMC Corporation (NYSE:FMC - Free Report) by 167.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 28,600 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 17,896 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund's holdings in FMC were worth $1,207,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FMC. New South Capital Management Inc. increased its position in FMC by 9.7% during the 1st quarter. New South Capital Management Inc. now owns 546,041 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $23,037,000 after purchasing an additional 48,431 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its position in FMC by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 13,278 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $560,000 after purchasing an additional 910 shares during the period. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC increased its position in FMC by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 23,693 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 914 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank increased its position in FMC by 56.1% during the 1st quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 37,710 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,591,000 after purchasing an additional 13,556 shares during the period. Finally, Convergence Financial LLC increased its position in FMC by 8.0% during the 1st quarter. Convergence Financial LLC now owns 12,528 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $529,000 after purchasing an additional 929 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.86% of the company's stock.

FMC Stock Performance

FMC traded down $0.34 during trading on Monday, reaching $43.89. 188,470 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,736,132. FMC Corporation has a 1 year low of $32.83 and a 1 year high of $68.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.77. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $40.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.51.

FMC (NYSE:FMC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $791.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $783.70 million. FMC had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 9.12%. FMC's revenue for the quarter was down 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that FMC Corporation will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. FMC's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 88.55%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho upgraded shares of FMC from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $49.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, April 25th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of FMC from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, June 14th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of FMC from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of FMC in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $51.00 target price for the company. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of FMC from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, FMC has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $50.15.

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.