West Family Investments Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

West Family Investments Inc. raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 91.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,983 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 6,666 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $606,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Portside Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.8% during the second quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 30,333 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,315,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares during the last quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 6,658 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $289,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 42,617 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,822,000 after buying an additional 261 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 21.3% in the 2nd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,527 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $66,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cypress Wealth Services LLC increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC now owns 6,230 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $270,000 after acquiring an additional 273 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. Citigroup raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. HSBC dropped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $56.00 to $52.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Clarkson Capital upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $46.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $46.73.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 1.8%

NYSE FCX opened at $42.91 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $61.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.64. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.66 and a 12 month high of $49.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.45 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The company has a 50-day moving average of $40.75 and a 200-day moving average of $41.99.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 in the previous year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 15th were given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.13%.

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.