Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Stock Position Raised by New Century Financial Group LLC

New Century Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 34.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,056 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,550 shares during the quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $489,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,698,442 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $5,675,241,000 after acquiring an additional 1,210,833 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 22.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,896,288 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,427,583,000 after acquiring an additional 13,143,562 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 55,656,836 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,369,312,000 after acquiring an additional 976,592 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 6.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 36,882,874 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,734,234,000 after acquiring an additional 2,392,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Putnam Investments LLC increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 16,647,339 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $708,677,000 after buying an additional 595,395 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

NYSE:FCX opened at $50.38 on Wednesday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.83 and a 1 year high of $55.24. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $72.37 billion, a PE ratio of 44.58, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.89.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.61 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be issued a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.55%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on FCX shares. UBS Group upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.93.

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.