Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Shares Climb 4% – Here’s Why

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX – Get Free Report) shares were up 4% during mid-day trading on Friday. The stock traded as high as $73.07 and last traded at $72.0720. Approximately 11,926,276 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 27% from the average session volume of 16,397,924 shares. The stock had previously closed at $69.28.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on FCX shares. Wall Street Zen cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $78.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Freedom Broker lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $72.87.

View Our Latest Analysis on Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 4.0%

The stock has a 50-day moving average of $70.55 and a 200-day moving average of $65.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $103.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.50, a P/E/G ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 1.39.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $7.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.62 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 10.63% and a net margin of 11.39%.The company’s quarterly revenue was down 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.54 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, October 15th will be paid a $0.0750 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 14.78%.

Insider Activity

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, Director Lydia Kennard sold 3,798 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.11, for a total transaction of $300,459.78. Following the sale, the director directly owned 122,702 shares in the company, valued at $9,706,955.22. This represents a 3.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Stephen Higgins sold 14,277 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.50, for a total transaction of $992,251.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 54,618 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,795,951. This represents a 20.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 110,398 shares of company stock worth $8,387,271. 0.73% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 66,485,424 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $4,181,268,000 after purchasing an additional 2,300,416 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 20.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 42,345,502 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,489,069,000 after buying an additional 7,044,775 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 31.2% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 37,353,852 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,897,202,000 after buying an additional 8,891,743 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 98.8% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 19,973,108 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,014,434,000 after buying an additional 9,924,573 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 13.8% in the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 14,918,066 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $938,197,000 after buying an additional 1,810,698 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Freeport-McMoRan Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE: FCX) is a leading international 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 systems, construction, transportation, renewable energy infrastructure and other industrial applications. The company also produces copper cathodes and concentrates, gold, molybdenum products and certain quantities of silver and other byproducts.

Freeport-McMoRan operates a portfolio of mining and processing assets in North America, South America and Indonesia.

Further Reading

Receive News & Ratings for Freeport-McMoRan Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Freeport-McMoRan and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.