Cerity Partners LLC Buys 15,898 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 33.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 63,534 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,898 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $2,705,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 102.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,698,016 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $355,838,000 after buying an additional 4,410,429 shares during the last quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter valued at $160,160,000. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC bought a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter worth $141,407,000. Imprint Wealth LLC grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1,678.9% during the 2nd quarter. Imprint Wealth LLC now owns 2,098,587 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $209,859,000 after acquiring an additional 1,980,616 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 57.4% in the 3rd quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 5,391,230 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $201,039,000 after purchasing an additional 1,965,987 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on FCX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Bank of America raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.54.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

FCX stock opened at $50.16 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.83 and a 1-year high of $52.42. The company has a current ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $43.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $39.82. The firm has a market cap of $71.95 billion, a PE ratio of 39.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 2.04.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.85 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 8.09%. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 23.62%.

Freeport-McMoRan 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.