U S Global Investors Inc. Takes Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

U S Global Investors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 15,000 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $650,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Aberdeen Group plc increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 7.4% during the second quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 1,915,539 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $83,948,000 after buying an additional 131,422 shares during the period. Zullo Investment Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 3.3% during the second quarter. Zullo Investment Group Inc. now owns 14,385 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $624,000 after buying an additional 457 shares during the period. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.6% during the second quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 42,617 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,822,000 after buying an additional 261 shares during the period. Strong Tower Advisory Services increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% during the second quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 203,604 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $8,826,000 after buying an additional 941 shares during the period. Finally, PDS Planning Inc increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 13.2% during the second quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 8,226 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $357,000 after buying an additional 961 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Hsbc Global Res cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Bank of America raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.56.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 5.5%

NYSE FCX opened at $40.92 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.66 and a 12 month high of $50.28. The stock has a market cap of $58.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.58. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $42.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.55. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.09. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.37% and a net margin of 7.45%.The firm had revenue of $7.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.46 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.73%.

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.