American Trust Invests $213,000 in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

American Trust acquired a new position in shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,349 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $213,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FMC. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in FMC by 4.6% in the first quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 4,007 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $255,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in FMC by 1.5% in the first quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 12,581 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $801,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. Wahed Invest LLC lifted its stake in FMC by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 2,131 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $134,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV lifted its stake in FMC by 27.7% in the first quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 866 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of FMC by 2.1% in the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 9,358 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $596,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares during the period. 91.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of FMC from $68.00 to $62.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of FMC from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of FMC from $53.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 13th. Barclays began coverage on shares of FMC in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $62.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of FMC from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.82.

FMC Stock Performance

FMC stock traded down $2.15 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $62.19. 2,401,892 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,853,288. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a 50 day moving average of $57.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.78. FMC Co. has a 12 month low of $49.49 and a 12 month high of $94.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. FMC had a net margin of 33.97% and a return on equity of 7.52%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.50 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that FMC Co. will post 3.17 earnings per share for the current year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 17th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.73%. FMC’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

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.