Van ECK Associates Corp Boosts Stock Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 18.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,621,704 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 414,140 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $111,606,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. CM Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 80.0% in the third quarter. CM Management LLC now owns 36,000 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,342,000 after buying an additional 16,000 shares during the period. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 345,917 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $14,726,000 after purchasing an additional 20,894 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,508,085 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $279,977,000 after buying an additional 102,466 shares during the period. Cadinha & Co. LLC raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 59.0% during the fourth quarter. Cadinha & Co. LLC now owns 647,691 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $27,572,000 after acquiring an additional 240,340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 57.4% in the third quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 5,391,230 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $201,039,000 after acquiring an additional 1,965,987 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FCX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Argus raised their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $44.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $53.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. HSBC boosted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 3.3 %

Shares of FCX stock traded down $1.73 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $50.68. 5,566,925 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,017,508. The business’s fifty day moving average is $44.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $72.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.38, a P/E/G ratio of 8.18 and a beta of 2.04. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12-month low of $32.83 and a 12-month high of $52.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 1.41.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $6.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 7.17%. The company’s revenue was up 17.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.52 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.55%.

Freeport-McMoRan Profile

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.