Freeport-McMoRan Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:FCX)

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Traders acquired 165,892 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 193% compared to the average volume of 56,631 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $595,702,000 after buying an additional 11,687,982 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 237.4% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,218,518 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $351,041,000 after buying an additional 6,486,011 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 21.9% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,885,531 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,214,203,000 after buying an additional 5,735,171 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 30.2% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 21,580,960 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $857,305,000 after buying an additional 5,001,531 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 38.1% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 16,273,162 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $619,682,000 after buying an additional 4,488,210 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $40.41 on Thursday. Freeport-McMoRan has a twelve month low of $33.98 and a twelve month high of $55.24. The firm has a market cap of $58.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.33, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a 50 day moving average of $37.99 and a 200 day moving average of $42.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. As a group, research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on FCX shares. StockNews.com cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Argus cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $40.00 to $48.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.75.

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.