FMC Corporation (NYSE:FMC) Shares Bought by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of FMC Corporation (NYSE:FMC - Free Report) by 327.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 627,540 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 480,691 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.50% of FMC worth $26,476,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of FMC in the fourth quarter worth about $49,888,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of FMC by 37.8% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,559,107 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $173,008,000 after acquiring an additional 977,110 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of FMC by 44.8% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,286,177 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $111,131,000 after acquiring an additional 707,727 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of FMC by 762.4% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 484,040 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $23,529,000 after purchasing an additional 427,915 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in FMC by 39.2% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,437,340 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $69,869,000 after purchasing an additional 404,876 shares during the last quarter. 91.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on FMC shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of FMC from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $41.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on FMC from $40.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Mizuho raised FMC from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $49.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group lifted their target price on FMC from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on FMC from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $50.54.

FMC Trading Down 0.6%

NYSE:FMC traded down $0.24 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $42.42. The stock had a trading volume of 1,240,918 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,038,021. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $40.91 and a 200 day moving average of $42.32. The company has a market capitalization of $5.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.19, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.77. FMC Corporation has a one year low of $32.83 and a one year high of $68.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

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

FMC Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.47%. FMC's dividend payout ratio is currently 88.55%.

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.