Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Acquires 11,682 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 7.8% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 160,616 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,682 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $7,806,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,698,442 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $5,675,241,000 after buying an additional 1,210,833 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 22.0% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,896,288 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,427,583,000 after purchasing an additional 13,143,562 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 55,656,836 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,369,312,000 after purchasing an additional 976,592 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 36,882,874 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,734,234,000 after purchasing an additional 2,392,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 7.9% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,157,118 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $994,808,000 after buying an additional 1,551,828 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on FCX. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. BNP Paribas upgraded Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $49.50 to $62.00 in a research note on Friday, June 21st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Raymond James decreased their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX opened at $41.30 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $44.64 and a 200 day moving average of $46.89. The company has a market capitalization of $59.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.55, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.89. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.83 and a 12 month high of $55.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 15th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 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.