Skylands Capital LLC Lowers Holdings in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Skylands Capital LLC lowered its position in shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) by 29.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 182,575 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 77,145 shares during the period. FMC comprises approximately 1.7% of Skylands Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Skylands Capital LLC owned about 0.15% of FMC worth $11,511,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AE Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in FMC by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,130 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $277,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC boosted its position in FMC by 73.8% during the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 3,881 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $262,000 after purchasing an additional 1,648 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank grew its stake in FMC by 47.3% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 21,800 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,460,000 after purchasing an additional 6,997 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its holdings in FMC by 1.4% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 81,983 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,490,000 after purchasing an additional 1,139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its holdings in FMC by 18.1% in the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 20,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,378,000 after purchasing an additional 3,154 shares in the last quarter. 91.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FMC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of FMC in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded FMC from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on FMC from $76.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Roth Mkm initiated coverage on FMC in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $74.00 target price on the stock. Finally, BNP Paribas cut FMC from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $56.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, FMC has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.75.

FMC Stock Performance

NYSE:FMC traded up $1.18 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $59.64. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 711,137 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,930,431. The business’s fifty day moving average is $59.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.99. The stock has a market cap of $7.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.55, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.01. FMC Co. has a 1 year low of $49.49 and a 1 year high of $124.61.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. FMC had a return on equity of 12.98% and a net margin of 29.45%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.37 EPS. Analysts anticipate that FMC Co. will post 3.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FMC Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.89%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. FMC’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other FMC news, CFO Andrew D. Sandifer bought 2,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $59.22 per share, for a total transaction of $127,323.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,966,211.36. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.