Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-three ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nineteen have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $70.2682.

FCX has been the subject of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $74.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $78.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th.

Insider Activity

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 14,277 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.50, for a total transaction of $992,251.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 54,618 shares in the company, valued at $3,795,951. This trade represents a 20.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 4,773 shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total value of $334,110.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 36,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,520,000. This represents a 11.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 26,600 shares of company stock worth $1,802,012. Insiders own 0.73% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 6,434.3% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 142,181,964 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $8,941,824,000 after acquiring an additional 140,006,047 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,332,957 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $6,619,611,000 after acquiring an additional 1,572,769 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 63,880,757 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,244,504,000 after acquiring an additional 622,343 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,873,136 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,193,327,000 after purchasing an additional 395,226 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 20.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 42,345,502 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,489,069,000 after purchasing an additional 7,044,775 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $79.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 0.92. Freeport-McMoRan has a 1-year low of $35.15 and a 1-year high of $79.95. The company has a market capitalization of $114.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.36, a PEG ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a 50-day moving average of $64.90 and a 200-day moving average of $63.66.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $7.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.62 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 10.63% and a net margin of 11.39%.The company’s revenue was down 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.54 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 2.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 15th were given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is presently 14.78%.

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.