The Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) share price is having a difficult finish to the week.
In morning trade, the iron ore miner's shares are down 7% to $15.23.
This means the Fortescue share price is now down over 10% since Monday's close.
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Why is the Fortescue share price being dumped this week?
Investors have been hitting the sell button this week for a number of reasons.
One of those is the iron ore price, which has come under significant pressure in recent days.
According to Fast Markets, this continued overnight, with the spot iron ore price tumbling 5.7% to US$82.50 a tonne. This is also a major year on year decline, with the spot iron ore price commanding almost US$120 a tonne this time last year.
The other reason that investors are selling down the Fortescue share price has been the increasingly bearish sentiment brewing in the broker community. This is largely due to concerns over the company's decarbonisation plans and its dividend.
Is the Fortescue dividend in danger?
According to a note out of Goldman Sachs, its analysts are forecasting an average iron ore price of US$102 a tonne in FY 2023.
If prices don't rebound from current levels, it would be hard for this average price to be achieved over the 12 months, which puts Goldman's estimate for a 97 US cents per share dividend at risk.
And that's before its increased capital expenditure to decarbonise its Pilbara operations kicks in.
Goldman is expecting an average iron ore price of US$86 a tonne and that increased capex to lead to a dividend of just 40 US cents in FY 2024 before further declines in the years that follow.
Unsurprisingly, in light of this weak outlook and yesterday's quarterly update, this morning Goldman has reiterated its sell rating with a $13.80 price target.
Elsewhere, this sentiment was echoed by analysts at Morgans this morning. That note reveals that the broker has retained its reduce rating and cut its price target to $14.30 this morning.
There could be some tough times ahead for the Fortescue share price based on what brokers are saying and forecasting.
