BNP Paribas Exane Cuts Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Price Target to $56.00

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) had its price objective lowered by BNP Paribas Exane from $58.00 to $56.00 in a report published on Friday morning,MarketScreener reports. BNP Paribas Exane currently has an outperform rating on the natural resource company’s stock.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on FCX. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. Johnson Rice decreased their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 in a report on Monday, September 29th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $47.30.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $45.22 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $41.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.22. Freeport-McMoRan has a 52-week low of $27.66 and a 52-week high of $49.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $64.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.85, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.09. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.84% and a net margin of 7.97%.The company had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.74 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.38 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 21.13%.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 128,760,188 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $5,049,975,000 after purchasing an additional 1,776,241 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 63,258,414 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,480,995,000 after buying an additional 899,699 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,477,910 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,450,384,000 after buying an additional 690,736 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,547,489 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,421,549,000 after buying an additional 5,661,958 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 190.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 36,494,793 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,431,326,000 after acquiring an additional 23,950,557 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.