Scotiabank Cuts Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Price Target to $53.00

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) had its price objective lowered by Scotiabank from $55.00 to $53.00 in a research report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the natural resource company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $51.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. HSBC raised their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a sector perform rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Raymond James raised their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised Freeport-McMoRan from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and raised their price objective for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $50.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 2.2 %

NYSE:FCX opened at $50.48 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 2.35. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $44.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.26. The company has a market cap of $72.41 billion, a PE ratio of 44.67, a PEG ratio of 8.00 and a beta of 2.04. Freeport-McMoRan has a 52-week low of $32.83 and a 52-week high of $52.42.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $6.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.17% and a net margin of 6.97%. The business’s revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.52 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.55%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 422.2% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 658 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 532 shares during the period. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

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.