Argyle Capital Management Inc. Sells 9,700 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Argyle Capital Management Inc. decreased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 33.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,700 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 9,700 shares during the period. Argyle Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $839,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CM Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 80.0% in the 3rd quarter. CM Management LLC now owns 36,000 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,342,000 after acquiring an additional 16,000 shares during the last quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 345,917 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $14,726,000 after acquiring an additional 20,894 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,508,085 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $279,977,000 after acquiring an additional 102,466 shares during the last quarter. Cadinha & Co. LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 59.0% in the 4th quarter. Cadinha & Co. LLC now owns 647,691 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $27,572,000 after acquiring an additional 240,340 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 57.4% in the 3rd quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 5,391,230 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $201,039,000 after acquiring an additional 1,965,987 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $49.50 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $53.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $50.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 2.2 %

FCX stock traded up $1.10 during trading on Friday, hitting $50.50. 19,037,059 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,097,275. The firm has a market capitalization of $72.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.69, a PEG ratio of 8.18 and a beta of 2.04. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $44.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.40. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.83 and a 1 year high of $52.42.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $6.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 7.17%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.52 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 26.55%.

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.