Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.05 EPS

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) issued its earnings results on Tuesday. The natural resource company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05, Briefing.com reports. 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 8.09% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.52 earnings per share.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of FCX opened at $48.98 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $70.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 2.04. Freeport-McMoRan has a twelve month low of $32.83 and a twelve month high of $52.42. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a 50 day moving average of $43.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $40.06.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.22%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Bank of America raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.23.

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.