Short Interest in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Increases By 6.1%

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 26,090,000 shares, an increase of 6.1% from the December 15th total of 24,580,000 shares. Currently, 1.8% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 11,020,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.4 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on FCX. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.42.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 9.7% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 164,640 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $8,219,000 after purchasing an additional 14,501 shares in the last quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 137.5% in the 3rd quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC now owns 147,735 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $7,375,000 after buying an additional 85,542 shares in the last quarter. Summit Global Investments grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1,559.3% in the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 76,493 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,819,000 after acquiring an additional 71,883 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter valued at about $754,000. Finally, AIA Group Ltd raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 16.2% during the third quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 92,224 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $4,604,000 after acquiring an additional 12,887 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

NYSE FCX traded up $0.24 on Friday, hitting $40.27. 12,044,226 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,896,514. The firm has a market cap of $57.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.87. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $41.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $44.27. Freeport-McMoRan has a fifty-two week low of $36.26 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.33 and a quick ratio of 1.30.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.39 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.46 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.49%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 21.90%.

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.