Biltmore Wealth Management LLC Decreases Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Biltmore Wealth Management LLC lessened its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 15,309 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 239 shares during the quarter. Biltmore Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $764,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 22.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,896,288 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,427,583,000 after buying an additional 13,143,562 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 976,592 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 36,882,874 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,734,234,000 after buying an additional 2,392,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Putnam Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 16,647,339 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $708,677,000 after acquiring an additional 595,395 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX stock traded up $0.78 during trading on Friday, reaching $50.55. The company had a trading volume of 11,510,330 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,326,417. The company has a market capitalization of $72.61 billion, a PE ratio of 44.73, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $47.69. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a one year low of $32.83 and a one year high of $55.24.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on FCX shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $52.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, UBS Group raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.93.

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.