UPDATE: Pritchard Lowering Price Target On FMC Technologies

Pritchard Capital is out with a research report on FMC Technologies, Inc. FTI and is lowering its price target to $56, but it has a Buy rating on shares. In a note to clients, Pritchard Capital writes, "with a margin ramp in the second half of 2011 that is now more daunting. FTI reiterated its 2011 EPS guidance range of $1.60-$1.70. Our revised estimate is $1.67, up from $1.66, after the company exceeded our 2Q estimate by 2c (thus we reducing our 2H estimated EPS slightly). The implied margin ascent in Energy Production Systems to reach a full-year range of 11.5%-12.5% starts at 10.1% in the quarter just reported and reaches 14.0% in Q4 by our estimates. Note that we had anticipated margins of 11.0% in 2Q. Higher volumes in-total plus better execution in the surface wellhead business should drive the increase. Longer longer-term, a full-year order take of $4 billion in subsea seems doable after $1.9B in the first half. That order book, and the aforementioned margin improvement exiting 2011, would set the stage for a jump in EPS in 2012 to our revised $2.23 estimate. At that level, we value the shares at 25x forward eps, and arrive at a revised target of $56. Reiterate ‘Buy'." Shares of FTI closed at $44.87 yesterday.