Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Sells 925 Shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC decreased its holdings in shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) by 13.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,120 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 925 shares during the period. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings in FMC were worth $297,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its position in shares of FMC by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 14,324 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $696,000 after purchasing an additional 497 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of FMC by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 17,826 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $867,000 after purchasing an additional 393 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of FMC by 34.7% during the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 990 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of FMC by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 37,946 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,845,000 after purchasing an additional 3,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WASHINGTON TRUST Co boosted its position in shares of FMC by 35.3% during the 4th quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 1,883 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 491 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.86% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at FMC

In other FMC news, EVP Michael Finian Reilly sold 2,958 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.25, for a total transaction of $163,429.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 25,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,407,107. This represents a 10.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on FMC shares. KeyCorp cut their target price on FMC from $55.00 to $51.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded FMC from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $78.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Mizuho dropped 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. UBS Group downgraded FMC from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic downgraded FMC from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $49.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.23.

FMC Stock Performance

Shares of FMC opened at $38.02 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The company has a market capitalization of $4.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.98, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $48.97 and a 200 day moving average of $57.22. FMC Co. has a 12 month low of $33.80 and a 12 month high of $68.72.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The basic materials company reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by $0.14. FMC had a return on equity of 9.67% and a net margin of 8.03%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that FMC Co. will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. FMC’s payout ratio is 85.29%.

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.