Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Sells 96,781 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. decreased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 44.5% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 120,494 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 96,781 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $5,223,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FCX. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.6% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 126,983,947 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $5,504,754,000 after acquiring an additional 1,941,662 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,547,489 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,421,549,000 after purchasing an additional 5,661,958 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 27,635,497 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,046,280,000 after purchasing an additional 6,054,537 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 16.0% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 13,162,058 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $498,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,815,285 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 21.7% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,968,781 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $453,138,000 after purchasing an additional 2,133,846 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FCX opened at $42.93 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $40.66 and its 200 day moving average is $42.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 2.45. The company has a market capitalization of $61.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.49. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.66 and a fifty-two week high of $49.12.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.74 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 7.84%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.38 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 15th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 21.13%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on FCX shares. Bank of America upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $51.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, Johnson Rice reduced their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $46.73.

Freeport-McMoRan 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.