Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.15 Per Share

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 18th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of 0.15 per share by the natural resource company on Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. This is a positive change from Freeport-McMoRan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08.

Freeport-McMoRan has raised its dividend by an average of 81.7% annually over the last three years. Freeport-McMoRan has a payout ratio of 14.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Freeport-McMoRan to earn $2.06 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.30 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 14.6%.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

NYSE:FCX opened at $38.71 on Thursday. Freeport-McMoRan has a 12-month low of $36.26 and a 12-month high of $55.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.86. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $44.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $45.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. The business had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.39 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on FCX shares. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. UBS Group raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.92.

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.