Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires Shares of 86,700 Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 86,700 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,691,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fairfield Bush & CO. acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. Synovus Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 15.2% in the first quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 11,101 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $553,000 after acquiring an additional 1,468 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 40.8% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 112,066 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $5,574,000 after purchasing an additional 32,474 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 73.6% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 132,043 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $6,624,000 after purchasing an additional 55,987 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 22.0% in the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 79,686 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,964,000 after purchasing an additional 14,388 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James upped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Bank of America raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. 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. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a report on Monday, January 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.71.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of FCX opened at $49.47 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $42.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.38. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.83 and a 1-year high of $52.42. The stock has a market cap of $70.96 billion, a PE ratio of 38.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 2.04.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $5.91 billion for 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%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.62%.

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.