Diligent Investors LLC Reduces Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Diligent Investors LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 38.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,076 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 4,997 shares during the quarter. Diligent Investors LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $350,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Stratos Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 238.5% in the 1st quarter. Stratos Investment Management LLC now owns 64,519 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,443,000 after buying an additional 45,458 shares during the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 18.5% during the first quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 39,571 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,498,000 after purchasing an additional 6,188 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 421,469 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $15,957,000 after buying an additional 8,989 shares during the last quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 8.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 331,549 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $14,373,000 after acquiring an additional 24,803 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Sense Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 527.9% in the first quarter. Financial Sense Advisors Inc. now owns 76,127 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,882,000 after purchasing an additional 64,003 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on FCX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $56.00 to $46.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $56.00 to $52.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Bank of America upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Stifel Nicolaus assumed coverage on Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $56.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.50 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.74.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 2.0%

Shares of FCX opened at $39.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.47 and a quick ratio of 1.21. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.54. The stock has a market cap of $56.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.58. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1-year low of $27.66 and a 1-year high of $51.19.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.85 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.45% and a return on equity of 7.37%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.46 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 22.73%.

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.