Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX Shares Purchased by Rathbones Group PLC

Rathbones Group PLC boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 28.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,796,710 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 395,848 shares during the period. Rathbones Group PLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $91,255,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. KBC Group NV increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 49.0% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 221,838 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $11,267,000 after purchasing an additional 73,002 shares during the last quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 8.0% during the third quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 1,551,258 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $60,840,000 after purchasing an additional 115,285 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 278.4% during the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 46,157 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,810,000 after purchasing an additional 33,959 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 190.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 36,494,793 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,431,326,000 after purchasing an additional 23,950,557 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. bought a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan during the fourth quarter valued at $8,857,000. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FCX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group set a $75.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Raymond James Financial lowered their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $72.00 to $68.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $53.50 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 24th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $71.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $68.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.14.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 3.7%

Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $60.88 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $87.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.38, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 2.39. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a one year low of $35.15 and a one year high of $70.96.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.73 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 10.34% and a return on equity of 9.88%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.24 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 15th were given a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.96%.

Insider Activity at Freeport-McMoRan

In other news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 29,654 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.00, for a total transaction of $1,868,202.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 76,445 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,816,035. This represents a 27.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.

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.