Oak Thistle LLC Purchases Shares of 44,409 Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 44,409 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,742,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.6% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 126,983,947 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $5,504,754,000 after buying an additional 1,941,662 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 3.2% in the second quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 62,358,715 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,703,250,000 after acquiring an additional 1,926,493 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 61,787,174 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,678,474,000 after purchasing an additional 320,514 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% during 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Freeport-McMoRan

In related news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 9,572 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.66, for a total value of $456,201.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 38,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,847,349.26. This represents a 19.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 28,423 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.99, for a total value of $1,364,019.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 105,294 shares in the company, valued at $5,053,059.06. The trade was a 21.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FCX has been the subject of several analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. BNP Paribas Exane cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $58.00 to $56.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 5th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, CICC Research cut their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $51.60 to $42.30 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.11.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $47.82 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $68.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.49. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52-week low of $27.66 and a 52-week high of $49.12.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.38 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 15th will be given a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.13%.

Freeport-McMoRan Company 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.