California State Teachers Retirement System Purchases 140,006,047 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

California State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 6,434.3% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 142,181,964 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 140,006,047 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.10% of Freeport-McMoRan worth $8,941,824,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 89.8% in the second quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 12,008 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $755,000 after purchasing an additional 5,682 shares during the period. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC NC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC NC now owns 3,968 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $250,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 8.6% during the 2nd quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 17,008 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,046,000 after purchasing an additional 1,341 shares during the period. Kintra Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 12.7% in the 2nd quarter. Kintra Wealth LLC now owns 5,043 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $337,000 after purchasing an additional 567 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 12.0% during the 2nd quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,546 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $4,877,000 after buying an additional 8,296 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, Director Lydia Kennard sold 3,798 shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.11, for a total transaction of $300,459.78. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 122,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,706,955.22. The trade was a 3.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Ellie Mikes sold 4,773 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total value of $334,110.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 36,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,520,000. The trade was a 11.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 110,398 shares of company stock worth $8,387,271. 0.73% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 5.3%

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $76.61 on Wednesday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52-week low of $35.15 and a 52-week high of $80.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 2.07. The stock has a market cap of $110.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.74, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.41. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $66.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.56.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $7.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.62 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 10.63%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.54 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.81 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on FCX shares. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Bank of America increased their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. HSBC raised their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Freedom Broker cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $67.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.27.

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a global 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 wiring, construction, transportation, industrial equipment and renewable-energy technologies. The company also produces gold as a byproduct of its copper operations and molybdenum, an alloying metal used in steelmaking and other industrial applications.

Freeport-McMoRan operates major mining and processing assets in North America, South America and Indonesia.