Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eighteen analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $51.00.

FCX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 26th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $56.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Stifel Canada upgraded Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th.

Insider Transactions at Freeport-McMoRan

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 8,584 shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.02, for a total transaction of $343,531.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 48,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,934,286.66. The trade was a 15.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FCX. MTM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $43,000. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 2nd quarter worth $300,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 694,196 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $30,093,000 after purchasing an additional 51,328 shares during the period. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 2nd quarter worth $216,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 40.1% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 25,184 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,092,000 after purchasing an additional 7,211 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

FCX stock opened at $41.83 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $42.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 2.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The stock has a market cap of $60.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.63. Freeport-McMoRan has a 52-week low of $27.66 and a 52-week high of $52.61.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.85 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.37% and a net margin of 7.45%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.46 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 15th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.73%.

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.