B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. Decreases Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lowered its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 34.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 47,150 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 25,056 shares during the quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $2,217,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,698,442 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $5,675,241,000 after purchasing an additional 1,210,833 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 22.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,896,288 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,427,583,000 after buying an additional 13,143,562 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 55,710,695 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,371,604,000 after buying an additional 1,030,451 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 36,882,874 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,734,234,000 after acquiring an additional 2,392,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 7.9% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,157,118 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $994,808,000 after acquiring an additional 1,551,828 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on FCX shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Argus lifted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $44.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 3.6 %

NYSE FCX traded up $1.56 on Wednesday, hitting $45.41. 13,031,851 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,668,771. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.34. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.83 and a twelve month high of $55.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $65.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.92. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $49.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $46.13.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.07. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.60% and a net margin of 7.83%. The company had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.32%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.55%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 42,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total transaction of $2,153,318.45. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,255,381.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 42,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total value of $2,153,318.45. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,255,381.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.03, for a total value of $4,162,400.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,430,735.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 177,538 shares of company stock worth $9,096,990 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan 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.