Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Shares Purchased by IFM Investors Pty Ltd

IFM Investors Pty Ltd boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 1.6% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 285,491 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 4,519 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $14,252,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. 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 raised its position in 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 valued at $3,427,583,000 after purchasing an additional 13,143,562 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 6.9% in the first 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 purchasing an additional 2,392,800 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 40.9% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 15,155,256 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $712,600,000 after purchasing an additional 4,396,309 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.4% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 14,454,789 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $679,664,000 after purchasing an additional 200,877 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

NYSE FCX opened at $46.84 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.83 and a 1 year high of $55.24. The company has a market capitalization of $67.29 billion, a PE ratio of 41.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.90. The company has a fifty day moving average of $45.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $47.85.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.83% and a return on equity of 7.60%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The company 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 $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 26.55%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FCX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James boosted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective 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. UBS Group raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.00.

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.