Freeport-McMoRan Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:FCX)

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors purchased 135,979 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 117% compared to the average volume of 62,753 call options.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the first quarter worth approximately $26,000. KB Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the first quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Retirement Group LLC raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 97.1% in the second quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 670 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 2.5 %

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $49.48 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 2.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.96, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 2.04. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $42.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.46. Freeport-McMoRan has a 52-week low of $32.83 and a 52-week high of $52.42.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $5.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.85 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 8.09%. Freeport-McMoRan’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.52 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

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 of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.21%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 23.62%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FCX. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Bank of America raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.71.

Freeport-McMoRan Company Profile

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.