Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX Stake Boosted by Wellington Management Group LLP

Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 190.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 36,494,793 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 23,950,557 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $1,431,326,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,962.9% during the 3rd quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 722 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 687 shares in the last quarter. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Proffitt & Goodson Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 39.8% during the 3rd quarter. Proffitt & Goodson Inc. now owns 977 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 278 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman Richard C. Adkerson sold 248,031 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.80, for a total value of $15,576,346.80. Following the sale, the chairman owned 3,509,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $220,372,673.20. The trade was a 6.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 29,654 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.00, for a total transaction of $1,868,202.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 76,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,816,035. This trade represents a 27.95% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 565,145 shares of company stock worth $35,839,918. Insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FCX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $53.50 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $56.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. UBS Group upped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $58.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.59.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of FCX stock opened at $56.33 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.66 and a 12 month high of $69.75. The company has a market capitalization of $80.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $61.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $49.90. The company has a current ratio of 2.29, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $5.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.42 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 8.50%.Freeport-McMoRan’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.31 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 15th were issued a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 19.87%.

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a U.S.-based natural resources company primarily engaged in the exploration, mining and processing of copper, gold and molybdenum. Its operations encompass large-scale open-pit and underground mining as well as associated concentrator and milling facilities. The company produces copper in the form of concentrates and cathodes, and also recovers gold and molybdenum as co-products; its business model includes exploration, development, mining, beneficiation and the sale of bulk commodities to smelters and industrial customers.

Freeport-McMoRan conducts operations and development activities across multiple geographies, with substantial assets in the Americas and Indonesia.