Merit Financial Group LLC Makes New Investment in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 7,091 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $345,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of FMC. State Street Corp grew its position in FMC by 27.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,271,760 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $417,151,000 after acquiring an additional 1,343,615 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of FMC by 317.7% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,099,389 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $63,160,000 after purchasing an additional 836,179 shares in the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP grew its holdings in shares of FMC by 2,129.4% during the 3rd quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 440,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,037,000 after purchasing an additional 420,601 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its position in FMC by 2,531.3% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 253,179 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $16,695,000 after purchasing an additional 243,557 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in FMC by 139.6% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 187,028 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,333,000 after purchasing an additional 108,978 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.86% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at FMC

In other news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.67, for a total transaction of $270,245.43. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 28,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,709,485.83. This represents a 13.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

FMC Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FMC opened at $55.59 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.94 billion, a PE ratio of 4.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. FMC Co. has a twelve month low of $47.71 and a twelve month high of $68.72. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.94.

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

FMC Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

FMC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of FMC from $75.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on FMC from $79.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Mizuho cut their price target on FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Bank of America raised FMC from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $63.00 to $61.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on shares of FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.25.

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.