Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co Sells 407 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co lessened its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 23,459 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 407 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $1,140,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 45.0% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 27,703 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,179,000 after purchasing an additional 8,602 shares during the period. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 12,456 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $530,000 after buying an additional 2,776 shares in the last quarter. Sachetta LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter valued at about $59,000. D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 195,941 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $8,341,000 after acquiring an additional 7,363 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the fourth quarter worth about $527,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on FCX. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note 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 stock from $49.50 to $62.00 in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Raymond James cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $53.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of FCX opened at $43.92 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 2.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The business has a fifty day moving average of $43.97 and a 200 day moving average of $47.09. The company has a market cap of $63.09 billion, a PE ratio of 38.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.89. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.83 and a 52-week high of $55.24.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 15th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.37%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 26.55%.

Freeport-McMoRan Company Profile

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.