US Bancorp DE Cuts Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

US Bancorp DE lessened its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 182,063 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 2,146 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $7,892,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 125,042,285 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $4,734,101,000 after purchasing an additional 1,822,987 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of 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. Amundi lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 27,635,497 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,046,280,000 after purchasing an additional 6,054,537 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,942,063 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $830,726,000 after purchasing an additional 2,642,810 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 16.0% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 13,162,058 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $498,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,815,285 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BNP Paribas Exane lowered their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $56.00 to $52.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. UBS Group set a $48.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus started coverage on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They set a “buy” rating and a $56.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.50 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.56.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

NYSE FCX opened at $40.92 on Monday. 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 price-to-earnings ratio of 31.00, a PEG ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.58. The company’s 50 day moving average is $42.51 and its two-hundred day moving average 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 quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $7.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.85 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.45% and a return on equity of 7.37%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.46 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.