Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd. Buys 19,883 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd. lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 39.5% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 70,283 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,883 shares during the period. Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $3,047,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 1st quarter valued at $366,959,000. Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 27,635,497 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,046,280,000 after buying an additional 6,054,537 shares during the last quarter. Crake Asset Management LLP increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 2,140.8% during the first quarter. Crake Asset Management LLP now owns 5,929,623 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $224,496,000 after buying an additional 5,665,000 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,547,489 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,421,549,000 after purchasing an additional 5,661,958 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mizuho Markets Cayman LP purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the second quarter valued at $159,147,000. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

NYSE:FCX opened at $40.20 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.31, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.45 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.77. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.66 and a 1 year high of $49.12.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.09. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.84% and a net margin of 7.97%.The company had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.74 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 21.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FCX. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Raymond James Financial lowered their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $46.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Bank of America raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. UBS Group set a $48.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.01.

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.