Wallace Advisory Group LLC Sells 265 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Wallace Advisory Group LLC reduced its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 3.1% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 8,340 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 265 shares during the quarter. Wallace Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $405,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 422.2% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 658 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 532 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 122,378 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $5,210,000 after acquiring an additional 5,773 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 30,817 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,312,000 after acquiring an additional 410 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 22.2% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 203,510 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $8,663,000 after purchasing an additional 36,932 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 5,190.7% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 211,840 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $9,018,000 after purchasing an additional 207,836 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock traded up $0.78 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $50.55. The company had a trading volume of 11,510,330 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,326,417. The stock has a market cap of $72.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.73, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 2.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $44.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $47.69. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12-month low of $32.83 and a 12-month high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.83% and a return on equity of 7.60%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be issued a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.59%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.55%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on FCX. Morgan Stanley reduced 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 note on Thursday, September 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. BNP Paribas raised shares of 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 increased their target price for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.93.

About Freeport-McMoRan

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.