UPDATE: Bank of America Downgrades FMC Technologies on Expected Flat Subsea Orders

In a report published Wednesday, Bank of America analyst Douglas L. Becker downgraded FMC Technologies FTI from Buy to Neutral, but raised the price target from $61.00 to $62.00.

In the report, Bank of America noted, “Our Buy rating on FMC Technologies (FTI) was predicated on secular growth and upside to subsea equipment orders. This upside is materializing and the shares have outperformed the Oil Service Index (OSX) by over 12pp this year. However, based on our proprietary bottom-up project analysis, we now forecast a lull in FTI's subsea orders and growth of just 4% in 2014. So while the secular growth trend for subsea equipment remains bullish, with orders a coincidental indicator of share performance we are downgrading FTI to Neutral from Buy. We are raising 2013/2014 EPS estimates to $2.25/$3.25 from $2.15/$ 3.05 to account for our higher order forecast and increasing PO to $62 from $61, or 19x 2014E EPS.”

FMC Technologies closed on Tuesday at $56.62.