Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Stock Rated “Moderate Buy” by Sell-Side Analysts

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-five analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $76.22.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $77.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Erste Group Bank started coverage on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Thursday, August 27th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $78.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. Wall Street Zen cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Thursday, September 10th.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 1.0%

FCX traded down $0.72 on Friday, hitting $69.33. The company had a trading volume of 12,069,916 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,967,696. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $72.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $66.62. Freeport-McMoRan has a 1 year low of $38.54 and a 1 year high of $80.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.07, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm has a market cap of $99.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.16, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.39.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.12. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 10.63%. The company had revenue of $7.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.54 earnings per share. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was down 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 2.90 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, October 15th will be issued a $0.0750 dividend. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 14.78%.

Insider Transactions at Freeport-McMoRan

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, EVP Douglas N. Currault II sold 80,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.56, for a total transaction of $6,284,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 211,016 shares in the company, valued at $16,577,416.96. This represents a 27.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 4,773 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total transaction of $334,110.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 36,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,520,000. This trade represents a 11.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 110,398 shares of company stock worth $8,387,271 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.73% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 66,485,424 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $4,181,268,000 after buying an additional 2,300,416 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 20.0% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 42,345,502 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,489,069,000 after buying an additional 7,044,775 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 98.8% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 19,973,108 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,014,434,000 after acquiring an additional 9,924,573 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 28.9% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,366,596 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $882,050,000 after acquiring an additional 3,894,872 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 13.8% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 14,918,066 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $938,197,000 after acquiring an additional 1,810,698 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE: FCX) is a leading international mining company focused primarily on the exploration, development and production of copper, gold and molybdenum. Copper is its principal product and is used in electrical systems, construction, transportation, renewable energy infrastructure and other industrial applications. The company also produces copper cathodes and concentrates, gold, molybdenum products and certain quantities of silver and other byproducts.

Freeport-McMoRan operates a portfolio of mining and processing assets in North America, South America and Indonesia.