Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Shares Purchased by Salem Investment Counselors Inc.

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 35.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,118 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 816 shares during the period. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $147,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FCX. Tompkins Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 33.8% in the 1st quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 791 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.3% in the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 17,417 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $819,000 after acquiring an additional 222 shares during the last quarter. Foster Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.8% in the first quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 32,050 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,507,000 after acquiring an additional 247 shares during the last quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 10,606 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $451,000 after buying an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Drive Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Drive Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,840 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $419,000 after buying an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FCX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. HSBC boosted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $41.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $49.50 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.93.

Insider Activity at Freeport-McMoRan

In related news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 80,000 shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.03, for a total value of $4,162,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,430,735.31. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 43,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.08, for a total transaction of $2,242,412.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,331,577.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 80,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.03, for a total value of $4,162,400.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,430,735.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 445,667 shares of company stock valued at $22,755,070 over the last ninety days. 0.79% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $49.56 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $71.19 billion, a PE ratio of 43.86, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.96. The business has a fifty day moving average of $50.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $44.76. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.83 and a 52-week high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.41 and a current ratio of 2.35.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $6.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.17% and a net margin of 6.97%. The business’s revenue was up 17.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.21%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is 26.55%.

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.