Hedges Asset Management LLC Boosts Holdings in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Hedges Asset Management LLC grew its position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) by 25.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the quarter. Hedges Asset Management LLC’s holdings in FMC were worth $972,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in FMC during the 4th quarter worth $345,000. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC raised its stake in FMC by 37.9% in the fourth quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 12,546 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $610,000 after buying an additional 3,446 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its holdings in FMC by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 5,024 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $244,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. grew its stake in shares of FMC by 20.9% during the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 227,328 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $11,050,000 after acquiring an additional 39,230 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management increased its holdings in shares of FMC by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 164,887 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,015,000 after acquiring an additional 14,197 shares in the last quarter. 91.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.67, for a total value of $270,245.43. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 28,649 shares in the company, valued at $1,709,485.83. The trade was a 13.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FMC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays raised shares of FMC from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Bank of America upgraded FMC from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $63.00 to $61.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group dropped their price target on FMC from $75.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price objective on FMC from $79.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.25.

FMC Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of NYSE:FMC opened at $55.70 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.95 billion, a PE ratio of 4.79, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 0.83. FMC Co. has a 12-month low of $47.71 and a 12-month high of $68.72. The business has a 50 day moving average of $53.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.20. FMC had a net margin of 34.93% and a return on equity of 7.68%. The firm had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.44 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that FMC Co. will post 3.34 EPS for the current year.

FMC Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.17%. FMC’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.97%.

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.