Old North State Wealth Management LLC Grows Stake in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Old North State Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) by 28.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 58,181 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,846 shares during the quarter. FMC makes up 1.6% of Old North State Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. Old North State Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in FMC were worth $2,833,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Millburn Ridgefield Corp lifted its holdings in shares of FMC by 186.2% in the third quarter. Millburn Ridgefield Corp now owns 498 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 324 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in FMC by 90.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 517 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. lifted its stake in FMC by 250.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 554 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 396 shares in the last quarter. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of FMC during the 3rd quarter valued at about $51,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in shares of FMC during the 3rd quarter valued at about $52,000. 91.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at FMC

In other news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $1,709,485.83. This trade represents a 13.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Michael Finian Reilly sold 2,958 shares of FMC stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.25, for a total transaction of $163,429.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 25,468 shares in the company, valued at $1,407,107. This represents a 10.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 7,491 shares of company stock worth $433,898. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group reduced their price objective on FMC from $75.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Barclays upgraded shares of FMC from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of FMC from $79.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of FMC from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, FMC presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.75.

FMC Stock Performance

NYSE FMC opened at $54.00 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.65, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $53.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.48. FMC Co. has a fifty-two week low of $47.71 and a fifty-two week high of $68.72.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The basic materials company reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.65 by $0.14. FMC had a return on equity of 7.68% and a net margin of 34.93%. On average, equities analysts forecast that FMC Co. will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current year.

FMC Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors 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 yield of 4.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. FMC’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.97%.

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.