Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Sells 38,950 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lessened its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 8.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 443,960 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 38,950 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $21,576,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,170.7% during the second quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 521 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 480 shares during the last quarter. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the second quarter valued at about $25,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the first quarter valued at about $26,000. Lynx Investment Advisory bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 422.2% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 658 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 532 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FCX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James reduced their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Scotiabank cut their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 19th. BNP Paribas raised Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, StockNews.com raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.79.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX opened at $44.53 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.34. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a one year low of $32.83 and a one year high of $55.24. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $43.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $47.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $63.97 billion, a PE ratio of 39.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.89.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.35 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 15th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.35%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 26.55%.

Freeport-McMoRan Company 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.