Rakuten Securities Inc. Takes $174,000 Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,076 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $174,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Guidance Capital Inc. lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 15.5% during the 4th quarter. Guidance Capital Inc. now owns 13,544 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $570,000 after buying an additional 1,815 shares during the last quarter. Quantum Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. Quantum Private Wealth LLC now owns 21,360 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $909,000 after purchasing an additional 1,900 shares during the period. Scissortail Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter valued at $1,568,000. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter valued at $325,000. Finally, Mathes Company Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter valued at $215,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $49.81 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $71.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 2.04. 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 Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.83 and a 1-year high of $52.42. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $43.08 and its 200 day moving average is $39.75.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.85 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 8.09%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.52 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 23.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America upgraded 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, April 9th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.54.

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.