Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Announces $0.08 Quarterly Dividend

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, September 25th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.075 per share by the natural resource company on Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 15th.

Freeport-McMoRan has raised its dividend payment by an average of 81.7% annually over the last three years. Freeport-McMoRan has a payout ratio of 13.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Freeport-McMoRan to earn $2.22 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.30 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 13.5%.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 7.4 %

Freeport-McMoRan stock traded up $3.56 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $51.87. The stock had a trading volume of 2,557,167 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,204,985. The company has a market capitalization of $74.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.75, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.89. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $43.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $47.33. Freeport-McMoRan has a one year low of $32.83 and a one year high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.34.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its earnings results 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. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.60% and a net margin of 7.83%. The business had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FCX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 19th. BNP Paribas upgraded Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Five 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.93.

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.