Marathon Asset Management Ltd Decreases Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Marathon Asset Management Ltd lowered its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 4.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 238,706 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 10,596 shares during the period. Marathon Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $12,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,332,957 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $6,619,611,000 after purchasing an additional 1,572,769 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.4% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 63,258,414 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,480,995,000 after purchasing an additional 899,699 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,477,910 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,450,384,000 after purchasing an additional 690,736 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 190.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 36,494,793 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,431,326,000 after purchasing an additional 23,950,557 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.1% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,671,223 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $849,945,000 after purchasing an additional 435,963 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. BNP Paribas Exane cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $71.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 24th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.14.

Insider Activity at Freeport-McMoRan

In other news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 29,654 shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.00, for a total value of $1,868,202.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 76,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,816,035. The trade was a 27.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.79% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $58.64 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $56.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.19, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.32. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $35.15 and a 12 month high of $70.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 2.39 and a quick ratio of 1.13.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.73 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 10.34% and a return on equity of 9.88%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.24 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 15th were issued a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is presently 15.96%.

Freeport-McMoRan Profile

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a U.S.-based natural resources company primarily engaged in the exploration, mining and processing of copper, gold and molybdenum. Its operations encompass large-scale open-pit and underground mining as well as associated concentrator and milling facilities. The company produces copper in the form of concentrates and cathodes, and also recovers gold and molybdenum as co-products; its business model includes exploration, development, mining, beneficiation and the sale of bulk commodities to smelters and industrial customers.

Freeport-McMoRan conducts operations and development activities across multiple geographies, with substantial assets in the Americas and Indonesia.