Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Upgraded at Scotiabank

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) was upgraded by Scotiabank from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note issued on Monday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm presently has a $48.00 price target on the natural resource company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $43.00. Scotiabank’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 17.47% from the stock’s previous close.

FCX has been the topic of a number of other reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Wall Street Zen cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group cut their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $39.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.27.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 0.8%

FCX stock opened at $40.86 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $37.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $58.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.68, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.64. Freeport-McMoRan has a fifty-two week low of $27.66 and a fifty-two week high of $52.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.18.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.24 earnings per share (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 analyst estimates of $5.36 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. The business’s revenue was down 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Freeport-McMoRan

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 8,584 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.02, for a total value of $343,531.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 48,333 shares in the company, valued at $1,934,286.66. This trade represents a 15.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.75% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FCX. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 125,042,285 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $4,734,101,000 after buying an additional 1,822,987 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,547,489 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,421,549,000 after purchasing an additional 5,661,958 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 29,579,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,122,922,000 after purchasing an additional 688,240 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 29,502,220 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,123,445,000 after purchasing an additional 2,191,926 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 27,635,497 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,046,280,000 after buying an additional 6,054,537 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.