FMC Corp. (FMC) To Invest $50M In Global R&D Headquarters

FMC Corporation (NYSE:FMC) plans to invest more than $50 million in capital improvement projects over the next three years at its Global Research and Development headquarters in Newark, DE. This includes the reconfiguration of a state-of-the-art greenhouse and research facility.

In 2017, FMC purchased the Stine Research Center campus, which was part of its buyout of a portion of DuPont (NYSE:DD)'s crop protection business. Notably, this was the biggest deal in the company’s history. The company retained more than 500 jobs in Delaware, formed 19 new positions and transferred 45 employees from a nearby state.

FMC is making fresh investments in Delaware, which has been a center of world-class agriscience and biotechnology research. Moreover, the company plans to reconfigure an existing structure at the facility that will boost its global R&D. It plans to hire 13 employees over the next three years for supporting the project. This will bring its total number of full-time R&D employees at the Delaware campus to roughly 375. Notably, the facility has a total workforce of around 600, including support staff and contractors.

Per management, the company will invest nearly $2 billion in R&D through 2023 as a cornerstone of its long-term growth strategy. Also, the Council for Development Finance (CDF) approved a grant for around $1.64 million from the Delaware Strategic Fund to support the expansion. This includes a performance grant of $142,500 and capital expenditure grant of $1.5 million.

The grant is likely to supplement FMC’s investment over a three-year horizon. Both the grants are contingent upon the company adhering to employment benchmarks.

Shares of FMC have lost 6.7% in the past year compared with the industry’s 33.5% decline.

Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks

FMC currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Some other top-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are Materion Corp. (NYSE:MTRN) , Flexible Solutions International Inc (NYSE:FSI) and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE:AU) . These stocks currently sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Materion has an expected earnings growth rate of 27.3% for 2019. The company’s shares have gained 21.8% in the past year.

Flexible Solutions has a projected earnings growth rate of 342.9% for the current year. The company’s shares have surged 144.4% in a year’s time.

AngloGold has an estimated earnings growth rate of 90.6% for the current year. Its shares have rallied 116.8% in the past year.

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