Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $76.23, but opened at $70.25. Freeport-McMoRan shares last traded at $70.3370, with a volume of 6,649,208 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on FCX shares. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Freedom Broker lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.75.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 7.0%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 2.07. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $67.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.66. The stock has a market cap of $101.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.88, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 15th were given 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 payout ratio is 14.78%.

Insider Activity at Freeport-McMoRan

In other news, Director Lydia Kennard sold 3,798 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.11, for a total value of $300,459.78. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 122,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,706,955.22. This represents a 3.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Ellie 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 36,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,520,000. This trade 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 quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.73% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 6,434.3% during the second 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 buying an additional 140,006,047 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the second quarter valued at $739,890,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 9,924,573 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 31.2% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 37,353,852 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,897,202,000 after acquiring an additional 8,891,743 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 102.5% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 14,211,579 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $721,806,000 after acquiring an additional 7,192,955 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

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.