Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. Invests $282,000 in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 5,645 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $282,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Easterly Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 137.5% in the 3rd quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC now owns 147,735 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $7,375,000 after acquiring an additional 85,542 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,559.3% in the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 76,493 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,819,000 after acquiring an additional 71,883 shares during the last quarter. AIA Group Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 16.2% in the 3rd quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 92,224 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $4,604,000 after acquiring an additional 12,887 shares during the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 33.3% in the 3rd quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 432,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $21,572,000 after acquiring an additional 107,852 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 21.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 202,440 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $10,393,000 after acquiring an additional 35,972 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on FCX shares. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $43.75 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $46.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $46.99. 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 52-week low of $36.04 and a 52-week high of $55.24. The company has a market cap of $62.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.06, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.91.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 7.40%. The firm had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.39 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were given a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 21.90%.

Freeport-McMoRan Company 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.