Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Stock Price Down 1.7% – Time to Sell?

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)’s share price fell 1.7% on Tuesday. The stock traded as low as $70.28 and last traded at $70.7260. Approximately 9,901,434 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 40% from the average session volume of 16,441,082 shares. The stock had previously closed at $71.96.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 9th. HSBC increased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $72.00 to $75.00 in a report on Friday, June 12th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $71.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $76.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $71.35.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 1.7%

The company has a market cap of $101.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.41. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $70.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $65.22. 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 (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.12. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 10.63%. The firm had revenue of $7.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.54 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, October 15th will be issued a $0.0750 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is presently 14.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 36,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,520,000. The trade was a 11.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 14,277 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.50, for a total value of $992,251.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 54,618 shares in the company, valued at $3,795,951. The trade was a 20.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 110,398 shares of company stock valued at $8,387,271 over the last 90 days. 0.73% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 3.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 66,485,424 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $4,181,268,000 after buying an additional 2,300,416 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings 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 valued at $2,489,069,000 after buying an additional 7,044,775 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 31.2% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 37,353,852 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,897,202,000 after purchasing an additional 8,891,743 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 22,685,423 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,152,193,000 after acquiring an additional 1,014,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 98.8% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 19,973,108 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,014,434,000 after buying an additional 9,924,573 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Company Profile

Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE: FCX) is a leading international mining company focused primarily on the exploration, development and production of copper, gold and molybdenum. Copper is its principal product and is used in electrical systems, construction, transportation, renewable energy infrastructure and other industrial applications. The company also produces copper cathodes and concentrates, gold, molybdenum products and certain quantities of silver and other byproducts.

Freeport-McMoRan operates a portfolio of mining and processing assets in North America, South America and Indonesia.