Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Upgraded at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $52.00 price objective on the natural resource company’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $48.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on FCX. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Argus cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.04.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of FCX opened at $40.31 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $57.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.25, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.97. Freeport-McMoRan has a twelve month low of $33.98 and a twelve month high of $55.24.

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

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Asset Planning Inc purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Mizuho Bank Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 487.8% during the fourth quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 723 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.