Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX Shares Acquired by Engineers Gate Manager LP

Engineers Gate Manager LP grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 12.1% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 692,631 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 74,896 shares during the period. Freeport-McMoRan accounts for about 0.6% of Engineers Gate Manager LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest position. Engineers Gate Manager LP’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $43,560,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 6,434.3% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 142,181,964 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $8,941,824,000 after purchasing an additional 140,006,047 shares during the period. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the second quarter valued at approximately $739,890,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 98.8% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 19,973,108 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,014,434,000 after purchasing an additional 9,924,573 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 31.2% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 37,353,852 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,897,202,000 after purchasing an additional 8,891,743 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 102.5% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 14,211,579 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $721,806,000 after purchasing an additional 7,192,955 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on FCX shares. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.50 to $58.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $67.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.27.

Insider Activity

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 14,277 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.50, for a total transaction of $992,251.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 54,618 shares in the company, valued at $3,795,951. The trade was a 20.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 4,773 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total transaction of $334,110.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 36,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,520,000. This represents a 11.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 110,398 shares of company stock valued at $8,387,271 over the last three months. 0.73% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 5.3%

FCX opened at $76.61 on Wednesday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $35.15 and a 12 month high of $80.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $110.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.74, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $66.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.56.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $7.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.62 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 10.63% and a net margin of 11.39%.Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was down 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.54 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 15th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.78%.

Freeport-McMoRan Company Profile

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a global mining company focused primarily on the exploration, development and production of copper, gold and molybdenum. Copper is its principal product and is used in electrical wiring, construction, transportation, industrial equipment and renewable-energy technologies. The company also produces gold as a byproduct of its copper operations and molybdenum, an alloying metal used in steelmaking and other industrial applications.

Freeport-McMoRan operates major mining and processing assets in North America, South America and Indonesia.