First Financial Bank Trust Division Boosts Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

First Financial Bank Trust Division raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 49,041 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 801 shares during the period. First Financial Bank Trust Division’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $1,867,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Deane Retirement Strategies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Deane Retirement Strategies Inc. now owns 47,144 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,357,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% in the third quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 20,777 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,037,000 after purchasing an additional 214 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Vermont boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 5.2% in the third quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 4,577 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $228,000 after buying an additional 228 shares during the period. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.0% in the third quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 11,681 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $560,000 after buying an additional 231 shares during the period. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Prospera Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,548 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $277,000 after buying an additional 234 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FCX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Scotiabank reduced their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. UBS Group raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $53.92.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock traded down $0.20 during trading on Thursday, reaching $37.88. The company had a trading volume of 8,746,802 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,710,957. The company has a market cap of $54.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.86. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.26 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $43.00 and its 200-day moving average is $45.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.33.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.39 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This is an increase from Freeport-McMoRan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 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.