Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday after Scotiabank raised their price target on the stock from $48.00 to $55.00. The stock had previously closed at $50.00, but opened at $51.45. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the stock. Freeport-McMoRan shares last traded at $51.58, with a volume of 3,288,846 shares changing hands.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $41.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 13th. Raymond James boosted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.71.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. CM Management LLC increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 80.0% during the third quarter. CM Management LLC now owns 36,000 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,342,000 after acquiring an additional 16,000 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,508,085 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $279,977,000 after buying an additional 102,466 shares during the last quarter. Cadinha & Co. LLC grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 59.0% during the fourth quarter. Cadinha & Co. LLC now owns 647,691 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $27,572,000 after buying an additional 240,340 shares during the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 57.4% during the third quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 5,391,230 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $201,039,000 after buying an additional 1,965,987 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Annex Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 15.0% during the third quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 480,162 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $17,905,000 after buying an additional 62,456 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $73.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.08, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 2.04. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $42.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.30. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. 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.