FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) Shares Sold by Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund decreased its position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC - Free Report) by 85.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,213 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 48,570 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund's holdings in FMC were worth $518,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of FMC by 17.7% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,881,670 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $728,745,000 after buying an additional 1,634,535 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of FMC by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,340,777 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $156,762,000 after buying an additional 169,224 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of FMC by 37.9% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,764,469 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $118,166,000 after buying an additional 484,500 shares during the last quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC raised its stake in shares of FMC by 43.2% during the 3rd quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC now owns 1,443,804 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $96,692,000 after buying an additional 435,404 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake in shares of FMC by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,090,939 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $73,060,000 after buying an additional 95,345 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.86% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FMC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on FMC from $61.00 to $59.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. UBS Group upgraded FMC from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $61.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. StockNews.com cut FMC from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Bank of America cut FMC from a "neutral" rating to an "underperform" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $60.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their target price on FMC from $59.00 to $55.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $71.75.

FMC Price Performance

FMC stock traded down $1.24 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $57.77. The stock had a trading volume of 1,380,779 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,935,780. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.01. FMC Co. has a twelve month low of $49.49 and a twelve month high of $121.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.49, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.87. The company's 50-day moving average price is $59.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.95.

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

FMC Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.02%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. FMC's dividend payout ratio is currently 22.03%.

Insider Transactions at FMC

In related news, CFO Andrew D. Sandifer bought 2,150 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $59.22 per share, for a total transaction of $127,323.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,088 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,966,211.36. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.81% of the company's stock.

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.