Traders Purchase Large Volume of Freeport-McMoRan Call Options (NYSE:FCX)

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 66,619 call options on the company. This is an increase of 21% compared to the typical daily volume of 55,119 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FCX has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Eight Capital set a $55.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.95.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fairfield Bush & CO. acquired a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. KB Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the first quarter worth $26,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Retirement Group LLC increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 97.1% during the second quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 670 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the third quarter worth $28,000. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of FCX stock traded up $1.14 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $47.02. 19,755,392 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,988,282. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market cap of $67.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.09 and a beta of 2.02. Freeport-McMoRan has a fifty-two week low of $32.83 and a fifty-two week high of $47.19. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.62.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.04. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 8.09% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The business had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.52 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 23.62%.

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.