Wealth Management Partners LLC Boosts Stock Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Wealth Management Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 14.0% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 17,075 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 2,100 shares during the period. Wealth Management Partners LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $803,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FCX. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 422.2% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 658 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 532 shares in the last quarter. American National Bank raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 348.8% in the first quarter. American National Bank now owns 745 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 579 shares in the last quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Tompkins Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 33.8% in the first quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 791 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.03, for a total value of $4,162,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares in the company, valued at $5,430,735.31. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 80,000 shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.03, for a total transaction of $4,162,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares in the company, valued at $5,430,735.31. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Douglas N. Currault II sold 55,000 shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.99, for a total transaction of $2,859,450.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 164,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,529,843.33. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 445,667 shares of company stock valued at $22,755,070 over the last ninety days. 0.79% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on FCX shares. HSBC increased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Argus increased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $44.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. StockNews.com upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $49.50 to $62.00 in a research report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.93.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:FCX traded down $0.80 on Tuesday, reaching $49.58. 1,482,418 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,153,930. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $50.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $44.86. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.83 and a 52 week high of $55.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $71.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.96. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $6.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.17% and a net margin of 6.97%. Freeport-McMoRan’s quarterly revenue was up 17.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.21%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is presently 26.55%.

About Freeport-McMoRan

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.