Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX Shares Acquired by TCTC Holdings LLC

TCTC Holdings LLC increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 2.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 754,316 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,584 shares during the quarter. Freeport-McMoRan accounts for 0.9% of TCTC Holdings LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position. TCTC Holdings LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $29,584,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.6% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 126,983,947 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $5,504,754,000 after buying an additional 1,941,662 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 62,358,715 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,703,250,000 after acquiring an additional 1,926,493 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 61,787,174 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,678,474,000 after acquiring an additional 320,514 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,671,223 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $849,945,000 after purchasing an additional 435,963 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 89.4% during the second quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 17,569,169 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $761,623,000 after purchasing an additional 8,292,873 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on FCX shares. UBS Group upped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Raymond James Financial raised their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 15th. CICC Research lifted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $50.40 to $64.40 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Clarkson Capital upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $46.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.26.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Richard C. Adkerson sold 248,031 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.80, for a total transaction of $15,576,346.80. Following the sale, the chairman owned 3,509,119 shares in the company, valued at $220,372,673.20. This trade represents a 6.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 28,423 shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.99, for a total value of $1,364,019.77. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 105,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,053,059.06. This represents a 21.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 513,986 shares of company stock worth $32,124,432. 0.75% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of FCX stock opened at $62.82 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $90.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.60, a PEG ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a current ratio of 2.29, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $55.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $46.84. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a twelve month low of $27.66 and a twelve month high of $69.44.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $5.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.42 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 8.50% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.31 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 15th were issued a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 19.87%.

Key Stories Impacting Freeport-McMoRan

Here are the key news stories impacting Freeport-McMoRan this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BNP Paribas Exane raised its price target on FCX to $75 (from $56) and kept an “outperform” rating — a sizeable lift to upside expectations. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Argus upgraded FCX from “hold” to “buy,” reinforcing buy-side momentum and contributing to short‑term demand. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Other broker actions (Stifel raised its target to $76; UBS, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley have recently lifted targets) add to the analyst-driven narrative supporting higher valuations. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks and other research outlets highlight rising earnings-estimate revisions and momentum characteristics for FCX, which can justify multiple expansion if commodity prices and volumes cooperate. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Increased media and analyst attention (multiple Zacks pieces, MSN/Yahoo coverage) is amplifying flows into FCX but is informational rather than a direct operational catalyst. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Grasberg production setbacks materially reduced Q4 copper/gold volumes, a real operational headwind that can limit near-term revenue despite stronger prices. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales: Chairman Richard Adkerson disclosed multi-hundred-thousand‑share disposals (Feb. 10–11 filings) totaling tens of millions of dollars — these trades can sap sentiment even if explained by diversification or tax planning. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: EVP Douglas Currault II sold 75,000 shares (~$4.8M); insider selling at the executive level is a nearer-term negative for perception of internal conviction. Read More.

Freeport-McMoRan Profile

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a U.S.-based natural resources company primarily engaged in the exploration, mining and processing of copper, gold and molybdenum. Its operations encompass large-scale open-pit and underground mining as well as associated concentrator and milling facilities. The company produces copper in the form of concentrates and cathodes, and also recovers gold and molybdenum as co-products; its business model includes exploration, development, mining, beneficiation and the sale of bulk commodities to smelters and industrial customers.

Freeport-McMoRan conducts operations and development activities across multiple geographies, with substantial assets in the Americas and Indonesia.