Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX)

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders purchased 135,979 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 117% compared to the typical volume of 62,753 call options.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $50.74 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan has a 52 week low of $32.83 and a 52 week high of $52.03. The company has a current ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market cap of $72.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 2.04. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $42.27 and a 200-day moving average of $39.38.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.85 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 8.09% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.52 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.62%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FCX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Raymond James raised their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.71.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,369,409 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $4,451,285,000 after acquiring an additional 305,912 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 59,752,726 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,543,676,000 after purchasing an additional 419,603 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 55,710,695 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,371,604,000 after buying an additional 1,030,451 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 34,490,074 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,468,244,000 after buying an additional 4,465,687 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,338,465 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,033,858,000 after buying an additional 472,160 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Company 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.