CHICAGO TRUST Co NA Makes New Investment in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

CHICAGO TRUST Co NA purchased a new position in shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,981 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $287,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Juncture Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of FMC in the second quarter valued at about $250,000. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of FMC by 87.4% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 17,662 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,016,000 after buying an additional 8,238 shares in the last quarter. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc acquired a new stake in shares of FMC in the second quarter valued at about $2,896,000. American Trust acquired a new stake in shares of FMC in the first quarter valued at about $213,000. Finally, Verity Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of FMC in the first quarter valued at about $213,000. 91.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

FMC Price Performance

Shares of FMC traded down $0.29 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $61.15. 1,031,736 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,972,343. The company has a market capitalization of $7.63 billion, a PE ratio of 6.82, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.84. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $57.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.96. 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 Co. has a one year low of $49.49 and a one year high of $90.33.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. FMC had a return on equity of 7.52% and a net margin of 33.97%. FMC’s revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that FMC Co. will post 3.17 earnings per share for the current year.

FMC Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.79%. FMC’s payout ratio is 25.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on FMC shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on FMC from $65.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 10th. StockNews.com raised FMC from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. KeyCorp reduced 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. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on FMC from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on FMC from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.06.

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.