Freeport-McMoRan Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:FCX)

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 107,434 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 47% compared to the average volume of 73,127 call options.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of FCX opened at $41.72 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan has a 1-year low of $27.66 and a 1-year high of $49.21. The stock has a market cap of $59.90 billion, a PE ratio of 29.38, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.58. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.45 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.09. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 7.84%. The business had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.74 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 21.13%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.6% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 126,983,947 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $5,504,754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941,662 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 3.2% in the second quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 62,358,715 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,703,250,000 after purchasing an additional 1,926,493 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 61,787,174 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,678,474,000 after purchasing an additional 320,514 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,547,489 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,421,549,000 after purchasing an additional 5,661,958 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 27,635,497 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,046,280,000 after purchasing an additional 6,054,537 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FCX has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.01.

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.