State Street Corp Grows Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

State Street Corp grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 66,485,424 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 2,300,416 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $4,181,268,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the second quarter worth about $739,890,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 98.8% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 9,924,573 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 8,891,743 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 20.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 101.2% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,498,267 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $675,896,000 after buying an additional 5,784,156 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on FCX. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $76.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Thursday, September 10th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.29.

Insider Transactions at Freeport-McMoRan

In other news, Director Lydia H. Kennard sold 3,798 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.11, for a total value of $300,459.78. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 122,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,706,955.22. This represents a 3.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 14,277 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.50, for a total value of $992,251.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 54,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,795,951. The trade was a 20.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 110,398 shares of company stock valued at $8,387,271 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.73% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of FCX traded up $1.86 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $74.02. 4,165,341 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,625,920. The company has a market capitalization of $106.30 billion, a PE ratio of 36.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The business has a 50 day moving average of $68.87 and a 200 day moving average of $64.85. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1-year low of $35.15 and a 1-year high of $80.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $7.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.62 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 10.63%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.54 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.82 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 15th were issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 14.78%.

Freeport-McMoRan Company Profile

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a global 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 wiring, construction, transportation, industrial equipment and renewable-energy technologies. The company also produces gold as a byproduct of its copper operations and molybdenum, an alloying metal used in steelmaking and other industrial applications.

Freeport-McMoRan operates major mining and processing assets in North America, South America and Indonesia.