Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $52.79.

FCX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

FCX stock opened at $45.14 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 2.40. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $43.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.06. Freeport-McMoRan has a 52-week low of $32.83 and a 52-week high of $55.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $64.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.95, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.89.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.07. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.83% and a return on equity of 7.60%. The business had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 15th were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.33%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 26.55%.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FCX. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,170.7% in the second quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 521 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 480 shares in the last quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. bought a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

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.