It’s been a rough month for shareholders of global science, chemicals, and sustainable technologies company Johnson Matthey (LSE: JMAT). The Johnson Matthey share price crashed over the past 30 days, after the firm abandoned a promising green technology.
The Johnson Matthey share price crashes
There are 101 stocks in the FTSE 100 index (one company has dual-listed shares). Today, the Johnson Matthey share price is ranked 99/101 Footsie stocks over 3o days. In other words, it’s the index’s third-worst performer over one month.
As I write, the Johnson Matthey share price stands at 2,132p, down 50p (-2.3%) since Tuesday. It is also down 6.6% over five days, 21.5% over one month, and 33% over six months. Yikes. Then again, the shares soared earlier this year, hitting their 52-week high of 3,363p on 28 April 2021. But it has been all downhill since then, with the stock losing more than a third (-36.6%) since its spring peak.
Battered by battery pull out
After recent setbacks, Johnson Matthey is valued at £4.1bn, making it a FTSE 100 lightweight. Indeed, further declines could see the group exit the blue-chip index for the mid-cap FTSE 250. After recent falls, this stock trades on 20 times earnings and offers an earnings yield of 4%. The dividend yield is 3.3%, below the FTSE 100’s 4.1%.
So what went wrong? The steepest fall in the Johnson Matthey share price came on Thursday, 11 November, when the group revealed that it was pulling out of the market for battery metals. This left some investors worrying the group might go ex-growth, leading to a one-day crash of 19.1% in JMAT stock. But some Fools now believe this share is in bargain territory.