Bank of Nova Scotia Buys 39,213 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Bank of Nova Scotia grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 7.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 584,604 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 39,213 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $25,343,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of FCX. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 24.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,807 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $564,000 after purchasing an additional 2,882 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 9,616 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $366,000 after buying an additional 507 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 76.3% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,620 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $99,000 after acquiring an additional 1,134 shares in the last quarter. SouthState Corp lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 704.0% in the first quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 2,814 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $107,000 after acquiring an additional 2,464 shares during the period. Finally, AIA Group Ltd grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 68.6% during the 1st quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 93,012 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,521,000 after acquiring an additional 37,853 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

FCX opened at $44.79 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $64.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $41.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.31. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52-week low of $27.66 and a 52-week high of $49.12.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.09. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 7.84%. The company had revenue of $6.97 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.74 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.38 EPS. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 15th were given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on FCX shares. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Scotiabank raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $51.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. HSBC dropped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $47.73.

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.