Calton & Associates Inc. Purchases New Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Calton & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,115 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 74.0% in the first quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 1,740 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $82,000 after purchasing an additional 740 shares in the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 13.6% in the first quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 11,139 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $524,000 after purchasing an additional 1,333 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 12.0% in the first quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,217 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $386,000 after purchasing an additional 883 shares in the last quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 57,547.9% in the first quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 27,671 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,301,000 after acquiring an additional 27,623 shares during the period. Finally, S.A. Mason LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 45.2% in the first quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 3,078 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $145,000 after acquiring an additional 958 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FCX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $53.92.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 1.2 %

NYSE:FCX opened at $48.53 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $45.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $47.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.95, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 2.40. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.83 and a 1 year high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.60% and a net margin of 7.83%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be given a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 26.55%.

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.