Rice Partnership LLC Purchases 9,561 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Rice Partnership LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 29.6% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 41,820 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,561 shares during the quarter. Rice Partnership LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $2,458,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of FCX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,332,957 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $6,619,611,000 after buying an additional 1,572,769 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 63,880,757 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,244,504,000 after buying an additional 622,343 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,873,136 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,193,327,000 after buying an additional 395,226 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 31.2% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 37,353,852 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,897,202,000 after acquiring an additional 8,891,743 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 10.1% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 34,262,241 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,740,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,130,046 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on FCX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $77.00 to $68.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.77.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $58.81 on Tuesday. 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 $72.28. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $63.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $62.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 1.37.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $6.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.73 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 9.88% and a net margin of 10.34%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.24 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.68 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.96%.

Freeport-McMoRan Company 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.