FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,330,000 shares, a decrease of 9.2% from the August 31st total of 6,970,000 shares. Currently, 5.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,370,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.6 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in FMC in the second quarter worth $1,307,000. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in shares of FMC by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 36,989 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,129,000 after purchasing an additional 2,208 shares during the period. Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new position in shares of FMC in the 2nd quarter worth about $576,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in FMC during the second quarter valued at about $762,000. Finally, William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in FMC during the second quarter worth about $106,000. 91.86% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

FMC Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:FMC opened at $65.94 on Tuesday. FMC has a 12 month low of $49.49 and a 12 month high of $68.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.36, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.85. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $62.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.73.

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

FMC Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.52%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. FMC’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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. Barclays raised their price target on shares of FMC from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on FMC from $81.00 to $79.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on FMC from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised FMC from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.47.

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.