FMC (NYSE:FMC) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of FMC (NYSE:FMC - Free Report) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Saturday morning.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on FMC from $43.00 to $41.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. Mizuho upgraded FMC from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $49.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on FMC from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on FMC in a report on Thursday, March 13th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $51.00 target price on the stock. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on FMC from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $49.46.

FMC Price Performance

FMC stock traded down $1.86 during trading on Friday, hitting $41.44. The company had a trading volume of 1,872,125 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,024,773. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.76. The business has a 50 day moving average of $39.21 and a 200 day moving average of $44.06. FMC has a fifty-two week low of $32.83 and a fifty-two week high of $68.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

FMC (NYSE:FMC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.10. FMC had a net margin of 8.03% and a return on equity of 9.67%. The business had revenue of $791.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $783.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that FMC will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

FMC Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.60%. FMC's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 88.55%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FMC

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. WP Advisors LLC increased its position in FMC by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. WP Advisors LLC now owns 6,193 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $301,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. increased its position in FMC by 34.7% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 990 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System increased its position in FMC by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 36,226 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,761,000 after acquiring an additional 285 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in FMC by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 59,771 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,905,000 after acquiring an additional 286 shares during the period. Finally, Algert Global LLC increased its position in FMC by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 59,052 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,871,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.86% of the company's stock.

FMC Company 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.