M&T Bank Corp Purchases 21,171 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 28.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 96,732 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 21,171 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $4,914,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. JPL Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. YANKCOM Partnership grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 83.3% in the 4th quarter. YANKCOM Partnership now owns 869 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 395 shares during the period. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 23.5% in the 4th quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 924 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Douglas N. Currault II sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.52, for a total value of $4,839,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 219,181 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,141,558.12. The trade was a 25.49% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Richard C. Adkerson sold 248,031 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.80, for a total value of $15,576,346.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman directly owned 3,509,119 shares in the company, valued at $220,372,673.20. The trade was a 6.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 565,145 shares of company stock worth $35,839,918 over the last ninety days. 0.75% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 5.6%

Shares of FCX opened at $60.93 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $87.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.41, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.32. 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 Inc. has a one year low of $35.15 and a one year high of $70.96. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $54.65.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.73 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 9.88% and a net margin of 10.34%.Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.24 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.52 EPS for the current fiscal 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 annualized dividend 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%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on FCX shares. CICC Research lowered their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $64.40 to $63.40 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $68.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group set a $75.00 price objective on Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.14.

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.