Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.07 EPS

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The natural resource company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.07, Briefing.com reports. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.83% and a return on equity of 7.69%. The firm had revenue of $6.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of FCX stock traded up $0.90 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $45.08. The company had a trading volume of 10,789,826 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,699,251. Freeport-McMoRan has a 52-week low of $32.83 and a 52-week high of $55.24. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $50.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $46.02. 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 capitalization of $64.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.92.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 15th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.33%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 26.55%.

Insider Transactions at Freeport-McMoRan

In related news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,430,735.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 80,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.03, for a total value of $4,162,400.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 104,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,430,735.31. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Douglas N. Currault II sold 55,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.99, for a total transaction of $2,859,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 164,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,529,843.33. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 445,667 shares of company stock valued at $22,755,070. 0.79% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $49.50 to $62.00 in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price 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. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.07.

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.