Park Avenue Securities LLC Buys 3,728 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 17.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 25,714 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 3,728 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $979,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FCX. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% during the third quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $595,702,000 after buying an additional 11,687,982 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,279,517 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $162,964,000 after buying an additional 2,515,103 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,348,522,000 after buying an additional 2,366,187 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 423.5% during the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,788,111 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $139,183,000 after buying an additional 2,255,529 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,965,717,000 after purchasing an additional 1,392,494 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on FCX. StockNews.com lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.42.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE FCX opened at $40.27 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.39, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.87. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.26 and a 52 week high of $55.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a fifty day moving average of $41.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $44.20.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 7.40%. The business’s revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.90%.

Freeport-McMoRan 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.