Raymond James Lowers Earnings Estimates for Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) – Investment analysts at Raymond James cut their Q4 2024 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note issued on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James analyst B. Macarthur now anticipates that the natural resource company will post earnings of $0.43 per share for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $0.44. Raymond James currently has a “Outperform” rating and a $57.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for Freeport-McMoRan’s current full-year earnings is $1.59 per share. Raymond James also issued estimates for Freeport-McMoRan’s Q1 2025 earnings at $0.52 EPS.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. StockNews.com cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley cut 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 report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

FCX stock opened at $46.60 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan has a 1-year low of $32.83 and a 1-year high of $55.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.33, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market cap of $66.96 billion, a PE ratio of 34.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.90. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $45.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $47.80.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 7.40%. The company had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.45 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.39 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last 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 given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.90%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 22.0% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,896,288 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,427,583,000 after acquiring an additional 13,143,562 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors acquired a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the 1st quarter valued at about $417,752,000. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 40.9% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 15,155,256 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $712,600,000 after purchasing an additional 4,396,309 shares during the period. Asia Research & Capital Management Ltd bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the first quarter worth about $197,966,000. Finally, Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the first quarter worth approximately $162,464,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.