Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd. Grows Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd. increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 39.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 70,283 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,883 shares during the period. Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $3,047,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of FCX. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 1st quarter worth $366,959,000. Amundi raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 27,635,497 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,046,280,000 after acquiring an additional 6,054,537 shares in the last quarter. Crake Asset Management LLP boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2,140.8% in the 1st quarter. Crake Asset Management LLP now owns 5,929,623 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $224,496,000 after purchasing an additional 5,665,000 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% in the 1st 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 period. Finally, Mizuho Markets Cayman LP bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the second quarter valued at about $159,147,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on FCX shares. BNP Paribas Exane cut their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $56.00 to $52.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. CICC Research lowered their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $51.60 to $42.30 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Clarkson Capital reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $42.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.01.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $40.20 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.66 and a 1 year high of $49.12. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $41.62 and its 200 day moving average is $41.77. The stock has a market cap of $57.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.31, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.45 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.74 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 7.84%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.38 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 15th were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is 21.13%.

Freeport-McMoRan Company Profile

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.