Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX)

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders purchased 75,145 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 30% compared to the average daily volume of 57,817 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $67.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 15th. CICC Research reduced their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $64.40 to $63.40 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reduced their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $72.00 to $68.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.27.

Insider Activity at Freeport-McMoRan

In other news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 7,550 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.00, for a total transaction of $475,650.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 68,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,340,385. This trade represents a 9.88% 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. Company insiders own 0.73% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FCX. KBC Group NV increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 49.0% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 221,838 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $11,267,000 after buying an additional 73,002 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 34.5% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,062,916 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $62,478,000 after acquiring an additional 272,726 shares during the period. Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,857,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 31.2% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 37,353,852 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,897,202,000 after acquiring an additional 8,891,743 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 205.4% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 317,429 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $16,122,000 after acquiring an additional 213,477 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock traded up $3.56 on Tuesday, reaching $67.20. The stock had a trading volume of 9,583,696 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,364,072. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 2.07. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $63.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $62.62. The stock has a market cap of $96.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.37. Freeport-McMoRan has a fifty-two week low of $35.15 and a fifty-two week high of $72.28.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $7.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 was down 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.54 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan will post 2.75 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

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

About Freeport-McMoRan

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.