Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. lowered its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 70.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,000 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 42,800 shares during the period. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $766,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,369,409 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $4,451,285,000 after acquiring an additional 305,912 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.9% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,338,465 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,033,858,000 after purchasing an additional 472,160 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 4.2% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,756,034 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $662,123,000 after purchasing an additional 709,114 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,533,638 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $628,278,000 after purchasing an additional 753,458 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 102.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,698,016 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $355,838,000 after purchasing an additional 4,410,429 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FCX. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a report on Monday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Raymond James upped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $49.23.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 0.6 %

Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $49.30 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $43.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.96. The company has a market cap of $70.72 billion, a PE ratio of 39.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 2.04. 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.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly 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. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 8.09% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The business had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.52 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. 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 1.22%. 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.