Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Position in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its position in shares of FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) by 11.6% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 186,832 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 24,464 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in FMC were worth $12,320,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mather Group LLC. increased its position in shares of FMC by 250.6% during the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 554 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 396 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of FMC in the first quarter valued at about $39,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of FMC by 56.9% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 678 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC boosted its position in FMC by 1,282.3% during the first quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 857 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 795 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new stake in FMC during the 2nd quarter valued at about $58,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.86% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at FMC

In other FMC news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.67, for a total transaction of $270,245.43. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 28,649 shares in the company, valued at $1,709,485.83. This represents a 13.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

FMC Stock Performance

NYSE:FMC opened at $54.39 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.68, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.48. FMC Co. has a fifty-two week low of $50.03 and a fifty-two week high of $68.72. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $62.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.97.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. FMC had a return on equity of 7.68% and a net margin of 34.93%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.44 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that FMC Co. will post 3.35 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Citigroup began coverage on shares of FMC in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $67.00 target price on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on FMC from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on FMC from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of FMC from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of FMC from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.00.

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.