Traders Purchase Large Volume of Freeport-McMoRan Call Options (NYSE:FCX)

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 66,619 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 21% compared to the average volume of 55,119 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Fairfield Bush & CO. purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the 1st quarter worth about $26,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. KB Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the first quarter worth approximately $26,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 422.2% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 658 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 532 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 97.1% during the second quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 670 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FCX has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $41.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 13th. Eight Capital set a $55.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a report on Monday, January 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.95.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 2.5 %

NYSE:FCX traded up $1.14 on Thursday, reaching $47.02. 19,755,392 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,988,282. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.09 and a beta of 2.02. The company’s 50 day moving average is $40.08 and its 200-day moving average is $38.62. The company has a current ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Freeport-McMoRan has a 1-year low of $32.83 and a 1-year high of $47.19.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.28%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.