PFG Investments LLC Grows Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

PFG Investments LLC grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 7.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 24,652 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,742 shares during the quarter. PFG Investments LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $933,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 123,219,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $4,692,191,000 after purchasing an additional 642,776 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 21.9% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,885,531 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,214,203,000 after purchasing an additional 5,735,171 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 29,579,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,122,922,000 after purchasing an additional 688,240 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 29,502,220 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,123,445,000 after purchasing an additional 2,191,926 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 24,055,524 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $916,037,000 after purchasing an additional 750,500 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on FCX. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 14th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Friday, April 25th. Dbs Bank raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $43.00 to $48.00 in a report on Monday, June 16th. Four equities research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 8,584 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.02, for a total value of $343,531.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 48,333 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,934,286.66. This represents a 15.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 2.4%

NYSE FCX opened at $40.18 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $57.74 billion, a PE ratio of 33.20, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a fifty day moving average of $38.28 and a 200 day moving average of $38.12. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.66 and a 1 year high of $52.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.32 and a quick ratio of 1.13.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $5.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.36 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.11% and a return on equity of 7.03%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.49%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.79%.

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.