Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Receives $54.00 Consensus PT from Brokerages

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $53.92.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com lowered Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% during the third quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $595,702,000 after purchasing an additional 11,687,982 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,348,522,000 after buying an additional 2,366,187 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 423.5% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,788,111 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $139,183,000 after buying an additional 2,255,529 shares during the last quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 34.9% in the second quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 5,943,074 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $288,833,000 after buying an additional 1,538,560 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,965,717,000 after acquiring an additional 1,392,494 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 1.7 %

FCX opened at $42.07 on Wednesday. Freeport-McMoRan has a twelve month low of $36.04 and a twelve month high of $55.24. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $46.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $46.53. The stock has a market cap of $60.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.71, a PEG ratio of 17.29 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 7.40%. The company had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.39 EPS. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.90%.

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.