Schechter Investment Advisors LLC Lowers Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Schechter Investment Advisors LLC cut its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,585 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 965 shares during the quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $578,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fiduciary Alliance LLC raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 192,468 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $8,193,000 after buying an additional 7,783 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Bridge LLC grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 74.5% during the 4th quarter. Legacy Bridge LLC now owns 1,745 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 745 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 441.9% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 594,236 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $25,297,000 after buying an additional 484,569 shares during the last quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 1,348,746 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $57,416,000 after acquiring an additional 174,030 shares during the period. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 120,333 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $5,123,000 after acquiring an additional 727 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FCX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Eight Capital set a $55.00 price objective on Freeport-McMoRan and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $41.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.95.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $46.99 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.83 and a 52-week high of $47.19. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.67. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market cap of $67.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.00 and a beta of 2.02.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.85 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 8.09% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.52 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.28%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 23.62%.

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.