Short Interest in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) Declines By 11.2%

FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,400,000 shares, a decrease of 11.2% from the July 15th total of 8,330,000 shares. Currently, 6.0% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,960,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.8 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on FMC shares. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on FMC from $65.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 10th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded FMC from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Mizuho upped their price objective on FMC from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on FMC from $81.00 to $79.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded FMC from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, FMC presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.63.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of FMC by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 23,010 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,451,000 after buying an additional 2,573 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of FMC in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,705,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of FMC in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $306,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of FMC in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $473,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its position in shares of FMC by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 376,858 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $23,761,000 after buying an additional 3,354 shares during the last quarter. 91.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

FMC Stock Up 3.2 %

Shares of NYSE:FMC traded up $2.00 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $65.20. 1,133,837 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,943,207. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The company has a market cap of $8.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.84. FMC has a one year low of $49.49 and a one year high of $89.27. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.15.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.63 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that FMC will post 3.17 EPS for the current year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 17th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be given 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 yield of 3.56%. FMC’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.