Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Lowered to Neutral Rating by Bank of America

Bank of America downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note released on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Bank of America currently has $42.00 price objective on the natural resource company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also commented on the company. UBS Group lowered Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Friday, July 11th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Canada raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Stifel Nicolaus assumed coverage on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, July 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.73.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $37.76 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market cap of $54.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.61, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.59. Freeport-McMoRan has a 1-year low of $27.66 and a 1-year high of $52.61. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $43.46 and a 200-day moving average of $40.52.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.85 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.37% and a net margin of 7.45%.Freeport-McMoRan’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.46 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is 22.73%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FCX. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $366,959,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 89.4% during the second quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 17,569,169 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $761,623,000 after acquiring an additional 8,292,873 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 27,635,497 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,046,280,000 after purchasing an additional 6,054,537 shares during the last quarter. Crake Asset Management LLP raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2,140.8% in the 1st quarter. Crake Asset Management LLP now owns 5,929,623 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $224,496,000 after purchasing an additional 5,665,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,547,489 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,421,549,000 after purchasing an additional 5,661,958 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.