Woodline Partners LP Acquires New Shares in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Woodline Partners LP acquired a new position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 7,497 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $364,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FMC. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of FMC in the 4th quarter worth $49,888,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in 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 during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in 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 worth $111,131,000 after acquiring an additional 707,727 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in FMC by 48.9% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,088,235 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $101,509,000 after acquiring an additional 685,995 shares during the period. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in FMC by 762.4% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 484,040 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $23,529,000 after acquiring an additional 427,915 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.86% of the company's stock.

FMC Price Performance

Shares of FMC stock traded up $1.29 on Friday, hitting $40.61. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,834,856 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,069,875. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.64. FMC Co. has a 1 year low of $32.83 and a 1 year high of $68.55. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $38.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $45.07. The company has a market capitalization of $5.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.80.

FMC (NYSE:FMC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.10. FMC had a return on equity of 9.67% and a net margin of 8.03%. The firm had revenue of $791.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $783.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. FMC's revenue for the quarter was down 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that FMC Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FMC Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.71%. FMC's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 88.55%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FMC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wall Street Zen cut FMC from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Barclays lowered their price target on FMC from $65.00 to $48.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on FMC from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Mizuho raised FMC from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $49.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed an "underperform" rating and set a $48.00 price target (down previously from $61.00) on shares of FMC in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, FMC currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $49.46.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Carol Anthony Davidson purchased 6,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $37.33 per share, for a total transaction of $223,980.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $223,980. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ronaldo Pereira purchased 5,600 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was bought at an average price of $35.77 per share, with a total value of $200,312.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 48,837 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,746,899.49. This represents a 12.95% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.67% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.