Federated Hermes Inc. Makes New Investment in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Federated Hermes Inc. bought a new position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 234,441 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,492,000. Federated Hermes Inc. owned approximately 0.19% of FMC at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of FMC. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in FMC by 15.3% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,547,766 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $791,137,000 after buying an additional 1,666,096 shares in the last quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC boosted its stake in FMC by 105.1% in the fourth quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC now owns 2,961,857 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $186,745,000 after buying an additional 1,518,053 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in FMC in the fourth quarter worth approximately $83,227,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of FMC by 35.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,061,828 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $322,439,000 after purchasing an additional 1,316,133 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of FMC by 5.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,290,219 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $973,987,000 after purchasing an additional 768,432 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.86% of the company’s stock.

FMC Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FMC opened at $63.36 on Tuesday. FMC Co. has a 1-year low of $49.49 and a 1-year high of $75.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $61.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $60.57. The company has a market capitalization of $7.91 billion, a PE ratio of 7.07, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.85.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.08. FMC had a return on equity of 7.52% and a net margin of 33.97%. The firm had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.50 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that FMC Co. will post 3.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.66%. FMC’s payout ratio is presently 25.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on FMC from $68.00 to $62.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Redburn Atlantic raised FMC from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on FMC from $81.00 to $79.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on FMC from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on FMC from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, FMC has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.63.

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.