Yahoo Finance Here's Why You Should Retain FMC Stock in Your Portfolio
FMC Corporation FMC is benefiting from its efforts to expand product portfolio, boost market position and its cost actions amid headwinds from soft demand conditions.
The company’s shares are down 46% in a year compared with a 3.3% decline of its industry.
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Let’s find out why this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock is worth retaining at the moment.
New Products, Cost Actions Aid FMC
FMC remains focused on strengthening its product portfolio. It is investing in technologies as well as new product launches to enhance value to the farmers. New products launched in Europe, North America and Asia are gaining significant traction. Product introductions are expected to support the company’s results this year. FMC generated $590 million in sales in 2023 from new products launched in the past five years. It expects revenues from new products to grow by roughly $200 million in 2024. FMC expects around 17% of its revenues for 2024 to come from products introduced in the past five years.
The acquisition of BioPhero ApS, a Denmark-based pheromone research and production company, also adds biologically produced state-of-the-art pheromone insect control technology to the company’s product portfolio and R&D pipeline, highlighting FMC's role as a leader in delivering innovative and sustainable crop protection solutions.
The company is also expected to benefit from reduced input costs, lower interest expenses, favorable product mix and its cost-control actions. FMC benefited from lower input costs in the first quarter of 2024. It also expects its restructuring actions, which include indirect spending cuts and workforce reductions, to result in $50-$75 million of cost savings in 2024. These actions are likely to contribute to its EBITDA growth.
Demand Weakness Ails
The company faces headwinds from inventory de-stocking. The demand weakness due to the aggressive de-stocking by growers in the distribution channel is hurting its volumes. The de-stocking is due to lower prices of fertilizers and certain non-selective herbicides as well as higher interest rates, which have increased the carrying cost of inventory.
A 27% decline in volumes hurt FMC’s revenues in the first quarter. Sales were impacted by inventory management actions by customers across all regions. Continued inventory management in certain regions, especially Asia, is expected to weigh on the company’s volumes in the second quarter of 2024, albeit to a lesser extent compared with the first quarter. High channel inventory in India is expected to be headwinds in 2024.
FMC Corporation Price and Consensus
FMC Corporation price-consensus-chart | FMC Corporation Quote
Stocks to Consider
Better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space include Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. AXTA, Carpenter Technology Corporation CRS and ATI Inc. ATI.
Carpenter Technology currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). CRS beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters while matching it once, with the average earnings surprise being 15.1%. The company’s shares have soared roughly 99% in the past year. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Axalta Coating Systems, carrying a Zacks Rank #1, has a projected earnings growth rate of 26.8% for the current year. In the past 60 days, the consensus estimate for AXTA's current-year earnings has been revised upward by 5.9%. The company’s shares have gained roughly 12% in the past year.
ATI currently carries a Zacks Rank #1. ATI beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters, with the average earnings surprise being 8.3%. The company’s shares have rallied around 43% in the past year.
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