Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Position Decreased by Comerica Bank

Comerica Bank reduced its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 6.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 283,612 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 18,781 shares during the quarter. Comerica Bank’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $10,800,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 237.4% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,218,518 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $351,041,000 after acquiring an additional 6,486,011 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 21.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,885,531 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,214,203,000 after purchasing an additional 5,735,171 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 30.2% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 21,580,960 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $857,305,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,531 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 38.1% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 16,273,162 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $619,682,000 after purchasing an additional 4,488,210 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,279,517 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $162,964,000 after buying an additional 2,515,103 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX stock opened at $37.63 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.66 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $36.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $39.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The firm has a market cap of $54.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.17, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.71.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.36 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. The firm’s revenue was down 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is presently 24.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on FCX. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $39.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $45.00 to $40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.09.

About Freeport-McMoRan

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.