Russell Investments Group Ltd. Lowers Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Russell Investments Group Ltd. decreased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 13.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,705,668 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 435,879 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $117,293,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in 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 valued at $5,504,754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941,662 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% in the first 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 during the last quarter. Amundi grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% in the first 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 lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 1,815,285 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 21.7% during 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 buying an additional 2,133,846 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on FCX shares. UBS Group set a $48.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.73.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

NYSE:FCX opened at $42.10 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market capitalization of $60.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.65, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.64. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $40.85 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.95. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.66 and a 52 week high of $49.12.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.09. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 7.84%. The business had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.74 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

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

About Freeport-McMoRan

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.