Aviva PLC Raises Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Aviva PLC lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 257.6% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,074,480 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 773,969 shares during the period. Aviva PLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $46,579,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.5% in 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 last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased 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 valued at $1,421,549,000 after acquiring an additional 5,661,958 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 27,635,497 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,046,280,000 after acquiring an additional 6,054,537 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $498,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,815,285 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 21.7% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,968,781 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $453,138,000 after purchasing an additional 2,133,846 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on FCX shares. Citigroup upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. BNP Paribas Exane dropped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $56.00 to $52.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 25th. UBS Group set a $48.00 target price on Freeport-McMoRan and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Johnson Rice lowered their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $46.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.01.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 2.9%

NYSE FCX opened at $39.78 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.66 and a 1 year high of $49.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.45 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The company has a market capitalization of $57.12 billion, a PE ratio of 28.02, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a fifty day moving average of $42.09 and a 200 day moving average of $41.63.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.09. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.84% and a net margin of 7.97%.The business had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.74 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is presently 21.13%.

Freeport-McMoRan Company 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.