Investors Buy High Volume of Put Options on FMC (NYSE:FMC)

FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock investors acquired 3,080 put options on the company. This is an increase of 161% compared to the average volume of 1,182 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Neo Ivy Capital Management boosted its stake in FMC by 533.3% in the 4th quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management now owns 228 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in FMC by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 228 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the period. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA bought a new stake in shares of FMC during the 1st quarter valued at about $33,000. Orion Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of FMC during the 1st quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Trustcore Financial Services LLC boosted its position in shares of FMC by 33.2% during the 4th quarter. Trustcore Financial Services LLC now owns 337 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.91% of the company’s stock.

FMC Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of FMC stock opened at $73.87 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The firm has a market cap of $9.21 billion, a PE ratio of 15.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.82. FMC has a 1 year low of $73.71 and a 1 year high of $134.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $91.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $106.58.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. FMC had a return on equity of 21.97% and a net margin of 11.60%. The firm’s revenue was down 30.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.93 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that FMC will post 6.15 EPS for the current year.

FMC Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 28th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.14%. FMC’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FMC has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group lowered FMC from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $120.00 to $97.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 5th. StockNews.com began coverage on FMC in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Mizuho lowered their price target on FMC from $127.00 to $122.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 4th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on FMC from $128.00 to $117.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 4th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on FMC from $145.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 11th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $118.29.

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 include 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.