Mengis Capital Management Inc. Increases Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Mengis Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 14.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 34,153 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,285 shares during the quarter. Mengis Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $1,481,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 125,042,285 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $4,734,101,000 after purchasing an additional 1,822,987 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,547,489 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,421,549,000 after purchasing an additional 5,661,958 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 27,635,497 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,046,280,000 after purchasing an additional 6,054,537 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 13.7% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,942,063 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $830,726,000 after purchasing an additional 2,642,810 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 16.0% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 13,162,058 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $498,270,000 after acquiring an additional 1,815,285 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on FCX shares. Wall Street Zen lowered Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Wednesday. CICC Research decreased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $51.60 to $42.30 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.56.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 1.1%

FCX stock opened at $43.31 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 2.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.18 billion, a PE ratio of 32.81, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.58. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a twelve month low of $27.66 and a twelve month high of $50.28. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.57.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.85 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.37% and a net margin of 7.45%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.46 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is presently 22.73%.

Freeport-McMoRan Profile

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.