Meeder Asset Management Inc. Acquires New Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 800 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,170.7% in the second quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 521 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 480 shares in the last quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the second quarter worth $26,000. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the first quarter worth $26,000. RFP Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 261.3% in the second quarter. RFP Financial Group LLC now owns 589 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 426 shares in the last quarter. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the second quarter worth $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FCX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Raymond James reduced their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 2.0 %

Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $42.66 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $44.29 and its 200-day moving average is $47.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 2.40. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.83 and a 1 year high of $55.24. The company has a market cap of $61.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.75, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.89.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $6.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.83% and a return on equity of 7.60%. Freeport-McMoRan’s quarterly revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Monday, July 15th were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.41%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.