Public Sector Pension Investment Board Acquires 267,200 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 482.1% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 322,621 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 267,200 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $16,105,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Easterly Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 137.5% during the 3rd quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC now owns 147,735 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $7,375,000 after acquiring an additional 85,542 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,559.3% during the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 76,493 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,819,000 after acquiring an additional 71,883 shares during the last quarter. AIA Group Ltd raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 16.2% during the 3rd quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 92,224 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $4,604,000 after purchasing an additional 12,887 shares in the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 33.3% during the 3rd quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 432,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $21,572,000 after purchasing an additional 107,852 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 21.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 202,440 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $10,393,000 after purchasing an additional 35,972 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on FCX. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. UBS Group upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX stock opened at $43.76 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $62.88 billion, a PE ratio of 31.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.91. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $46.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $46.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52-week low of $36.04 and a 52-week high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.39 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.51 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were issued a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.90%.

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.