Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Purchases 699 Shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) by 6.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,053 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 699 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in FMC were worth $697,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FMC. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of FMC by 17.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,634,535 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of FMC by 7.8% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,340,777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $156,762,000 after buying an additional 169,224 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of FMC by 58.9% during the 3rd quarter. Manning & Napier Group LLC now owns 2,249,633 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $150,658,000 after acquiring an additional 833,845 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 484,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tweedy Browne Co LLC raised its stake in shares of FMC by 43.2% in 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 acquiring an additional 435,404 shares in the last quarter. 91.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FMC. Mizuho decreased their target price on FMC from $59.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of FMC from $76.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of FMC from $61.00 to $59.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of FMC in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, StockNews.com lowered FMC from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $71.75.

Insider Activity at FMC

In related news, CFO Andrew D. Sandifer acquired 2,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $59.22 per share, for a total transaction of $127,323.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,966,211.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.85% of the stock is owned by insiders.

FMC Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of FMC stock opened at $57.80 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $59.33 and a 200-day moving average of $58.10. The stock has a market cap of $7.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.87. FMC Co. has a 52-week low of $49.49 and a 52-week high of $124.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.52.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $1.15 billion during 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 period last year, the company earned $2.37 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that FMC Co. will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.01%. FMC’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.03%.

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.