Ameriprise Financial Inc. Purchases 650,483 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 6.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,219,658 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 650,483 shares during the quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned 0.78% of Freeport-McMoRan worth $440,006,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Portside Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 30,333 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,315,000 after buying an additional 245 shares during the last quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.6% in the second quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 45,133 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,957,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.6% in the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 45,095 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,769,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 3.9% during the second quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 6,658 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $289,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mengis Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.7% during the third quarter. Mengis Capital Management Inc. now owns 34,404 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,349,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley set a $70.00 price objective on Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. CICC Research boosted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $50.40 to $64.40 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Raymond James Financial increased their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Bank of America raised their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $68.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, HSBC lifted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.59.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 4.9%

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $56.33 on Monday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.66 and a 1 year high of $69.75. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.98. The company has a market cap of $80.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.30, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.29 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.19. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 8.50%.The firm had revenue of $5.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.31 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 15th were paid a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Richard C. Adkerson sold 152,960 shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.65, for a total transaction of $9,888,864.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman directly owned 3,356,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $216,975,679.35. This trade represents a 4.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 11,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.03, for a total transaction of $682,330.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 40,773 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,529,149.19. This represents a 21.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 565,145 shares of company stock valued at $35,839,918. Insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a U.S.-based natural resources company primarily engaged in the exploration, mining and processing of copper, gold and molybdenum. Its operations encompass large-scale open-pit and underground mining as well as associated concentrator and milling facilities. The company produces copper in the form of concentrates and cathodes, and also recovers gold and molybdenum as co-products; its business model includes exploration, development, mining, beneficiation and the sale of bulk commodities to smelters and industrial customers.

Freeport-McMoRan conducts operations and development activities across multiple geographies, with substantial assets in the Americas and Indonesia.