DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Buys 36,196 Shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC - Free Report) by 146.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 60,980 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 36,196 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale's holdings in FMC were worth $3,820,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in FMC in the 4th quarter valued at $5,705,000. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of FMC in the 4th quarter worth about $378,000. North Point Portfolio Managers Corp OH grew its position in FMC by 67.3% during the fourth quarter. North Point Portfolio Managers Corp OH now owns 118,531 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $7,473,000 after buying an additional 47,697 shares during the period. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in FMC by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC now owns 64,045 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,038,000 after buying an additional 5,160 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in FMC by 36.7% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 10,095 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $636,000 after buying an additional 2,711 shares during the last quarter. 91.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of FMC from $76.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday. BNP Paribas lowered FMC from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $56.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on FMC in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a "peer perform" rating for the company. Bank of America cut FMC from a "neutral" rating to an "underperform" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $60.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price objective on FMC from $59.00 to $55.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, FMC presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $71.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Andrew D. Sandifer acquired 2,150 shares of FMC stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $59.22 per share, for a total transaction of $127,323.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,088 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,966,211.36. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.85% of the company's stock.

FMC Price Performance

Shares of FMC stock traded down $4.79 on Friday, reaching $56.75. The stock had a trading volume of 2,007,136 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,895,065. The business's 50 day moving average is $58.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.54. The company has a market cap of $7.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.87. FMC Co. has a 1 year low of $49.49 and a 1 year high of $125.20. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

FMC (NYSE:FMC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.01). FMC had a return on equity of 12.98% and a net margin of 29.45%. The business had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.37 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that FMC Co. will post 3.88 EPS for the current year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.09%. FMC's payout ratio is 22.03%.

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.