Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Stock Rating Upgraded by Jefferies Financial Group

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) was upgraded by research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage presently has a $48.00 target price on the natural resource company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $40.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective points to a potential upside of 30.03% from the stock’s previous close.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Argus lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.04.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of FCX opened at $36.92 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $38.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.59. The stock has a market cap of $53.05 billion, a PE ratio of 28.62, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.85. Freeport-McMoRan has a 12 month low of $34.89 and a 12 month high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.18.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. Equities analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 123,219,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $4,692,191,000 after acquiring an additional 642,776 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,965,717,000 after acquiring an additional 1,392,494 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 21.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,885,531 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,214,203,000 after acquiring an additional 5,735,171 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 29,579,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,122,922,000 after acquiring an additional 688,240 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 29,502,220 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,123,445,000 after acquiring an additional 2,191,926 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

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.