Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Cuts Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 21.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 22,513 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 6,119 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $857,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,965,717,000 after purchasing an additional 1,392,494 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 28,891,058 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,436,455,000 after buying an additional 529,099 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 worth $1,348,522,000 after buying an additional 2,366,187 shares during the last quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 worth $595,702,000 after buying an additional 11,687,982 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,343,109 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $502,675,000 after buying an additional 56,499 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank lowered their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. 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. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.96.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $40.04 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $57.53 billion, a PE ratio of 29.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.26 and a 52 week high of $55.24. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.46.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.45 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.39 earnings per share. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.50%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.80%.

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.