RiverFront Investment Group LLC Boosts Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

RiverFront Investment Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 7.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,907 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 907 shares during the period. RiverFront Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $491,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% during the third 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 during the period. Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 30.2% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 21,580,960 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $857,305,000 after buying an additional 5,001,531 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,279,517 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $162,964,000 after buying an additional 2,515,103 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 worth $1,348,522,000 after buying an additional 2,366,187 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 136.0% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,635,724 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $81,655,000 after acquiring an additional 942,701 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FCX. Scotiabank decreased their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $40.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.04.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $38.36 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $55.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.74, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.97. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $33.98 and a 12 month 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. As a group, analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is presently 23.26%.

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.