Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Shares Gap Down to $48.95

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $48.95, but opened at $47.45. Freeport-McMoRan shares last traded at $47.82, with a volume of 4,282,287 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FCX has been the topic of several analyst reports. HSBC lifted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Bank of America raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Bernstein Bank boosted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $52.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.15.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The company has a market capitalization of $68.85 billion, a PE ratio of 37.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 2.04. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.06.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $6.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 8.09% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The company’s revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.57 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a $0.15 dividend. 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 1.25%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.62%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Tompkins Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 33.8% in the first quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 791 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. MV Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 38.6% in the first quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 794 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.3% in the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 17,417 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $819,000 after acquiring an additional 222 shares during the period. Foster Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.8% in the first quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 32,050 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,507,000 after acquiring an additional 247 shares during the period. Finally, Fulton Bank N.A. raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 10,606 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $451,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

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.