Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Plans $0.15 Quarterly Dividend

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 26th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.15 per share by the natural resource company on Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.41%.

Freeport-McMoRan has a payout ratio of 13.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Freeport-McMoRan to earn $2.16 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 13.9%.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 1.3 %

FCX stock opened at $42.47 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $38.15 and a 200-day moving average of $42.00. Freeport-McMoRan has a fifty-two week low of $33.98 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24. The company has a market capitalization of $61.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.22, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 2.42.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 24.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,807 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,882 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $564,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on FCX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $48.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.04.

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.