Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Invests $295,000 in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 5,909 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $295,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 55.7% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 30,229 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,421,000 after purchasing an additional 10,820 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 566,772 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $26,650,000 after acquiring an additional 21,889 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 30.5% during the 1st quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 4,344 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $204,000 after acquiring an additional 1,016 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 22.7% during the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 54,730 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,573,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 479.9% during the 1st quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 282,707 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $13,293,000 after purchasing an additional 233,955 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on FCX shares. StockNews.com downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 2.9 %

FCX opened at $43.60 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.38 and a twelve month high of $55.24. The company has a market cap of $62.65 billion, a PE ratio of 31.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.91. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $46.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $47.49.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. The business had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.39 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.90%.

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.