Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Short Interest Up 6.1% in December

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 26,090,000 shares, a growth of 6.1% from the December 15th total of 24,580,000 shares. Approximately 1.8% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 11,020,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Freeport-McMoRan stock traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $40.27. 12,044,226 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,896,514. The company has a market cap of $57.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a current ratio of 2.33, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan has a twelve month low of $36.26 and a twelve month high of $55.24. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $41.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $44.27.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 7.40%. The firm had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.39 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.49%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 21.90%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FCX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.42.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FCX. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% in the 3rd quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $595,702,000 after purchasing an additional 11,687,982 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,279,517 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $162,964,000 after purchasing an additional 2,515,103 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,348,522,000 after purchasing an additional 2,366,187 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 423.5% during the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,788,111 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $139,183,000 after buying an additional 2,255,529 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,965,717,000 after buying an additional 1,392,494 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.