Ramirez Asset Management Inc. Decreases Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Ramirez Asset Management Inc. lowered its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 2.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 67,366 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 1,672 shares during the quarter. Ramirez Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $2,565,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Asset Planning Inc bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC acquired a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 487.8% during the fourth quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 723 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Continuum Advisory LLC increased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 46.8% in the third quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 740 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 236 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on FCX shares. Dbs Bank raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $40.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.04.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $39.99 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.98. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.98 and a twelve month high of $55.24. The company has a market capitalization of $57.47 billion, a PE ratio of 31.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.50%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.26%.

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.