Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 642,776 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 123,219,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 642,776 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.09% of Freeport-McMoRan worth $4,692,191,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings 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 worth $2,965,717,000 after buying an additional 1,392,494 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.9% in the third 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 purchasing an additional 529,099 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 30.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 21,580,960 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $857,305,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,531 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mountaineer Partners Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% in the third 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 period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Dbs Bank upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $48.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $40.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Argus lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.04.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

FCX opened at $41.66 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $59.87 billion, a PE ratio of 32.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $38.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.97. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.98 and a 1 year high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.18.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. Sell-side analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Profile

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.