Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Receives $52.93 Average Price Target from Analysts

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $52.93.

FCX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised Freeport-McMoRan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $49.50 to $62.00 in a research report on Friday, June 21st. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $41.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 14th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $49.50 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Bank of America raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $51.51 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $50.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $45.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 1.41. The company has a market cap of $73.99 billion, a PE ratio of 45.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.92. Freeport-McMoRan has a 12 month low of $32.83 and a 12 month high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $6.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 7.17%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.52 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Monday, July 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.16%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 26.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 80,000 shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.03, for a total transaction of $4,162,400.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 104,377 shares in the company, valued at $5,430,735.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.03, for a total transaction of $4,162,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 104,377 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,430,735.31. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 42,767 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total value of $2,153,318.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares in the company, valued at $5,255,381.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 445,667 shares of company stock valued at $22,755,070. Corporate insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Belpointe Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 38.6% in the 4th quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 16,891 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $719,000 after acquiring an additional 4,703 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 55,656,836 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,369,312,000 after purchasing an additional 976,592 shares during the period. Oaktree Capital Management LP lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Oaktree Capital Management LP now owns 2,917,913 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $124,216,000 after buying an additional 211,608 shares during the last quarter. Norden Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,823.1% in the 1st quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 249,885 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $11,750,000 after buying an additional 236,891 shares during the period. Finally, Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 345,917 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $14,726,000 after buying an additional 20,894 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

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.