Morse Asset Management Inc Increases Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Morse Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 71.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 41,844 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 17,428 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $2,034,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,698,442 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $5,675,241,000 after purchasing an additional 1,210,833 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 22.0% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,896,288 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,427,583,000 after acquiring an additional 13,143,562 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 55,656,836 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,369,312,000 after purchasing an additional 976,592 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 6.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 36,882,874 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,734,234,000 after acquiring an additional 2,392,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 7.9% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,157,118 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $994,808,000 after purchasing an additional 1,551,828 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 1.4 %

FCX opened at $44.53 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $47.23. The company has a market cap of $63.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.89. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.83 and a fifty-two week 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 announced its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.60% and a net margin of 7.83%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Monday, July 15th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.35%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.55%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FCX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Scotiabank cut their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 19th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted 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 given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.79.

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.