Archer Investment Corp Increases Stock Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Archer Investment Corp raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 1,296.3% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 754 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 700 shares during the quarter. Archer Investment Corp’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $37,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the first quarter valued at $26,000. Lynx Investment Advisory bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 422.2% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 658 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 532 shares during the period. RFP Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 261.3% during the second quarter. RFP Financial Group LLC now owns 589 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 426 shares during the last quarter. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 19th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $49.50 to $62.00 in a report on Friday, June 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $53.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $41.61 on Thursday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.83 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 2.40. The company has a market capitalization of $59.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.92. The company has a fifty day moving average of $45.47 and a 200 day moving average of $46.82.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.60% and a net margin of 7.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 15th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 26.55%.

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc engages in the mining of mineral properties in North America, South America, and Indonesia. It primarily explores for copper, gold, molybdenum, silver, and other metals. The company's assets include the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia; Morenci, Bagdad, Safford, Sierrita, and Miami in Arizona; Chino and Tyrone in New Mexico; and Henderson and Climax in Colorado, North America, as well as Cerro Verde in Peru and El Abra in Chile.