Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Buys 127,251 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 1.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,223,038 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 127,251 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $410,494,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 1st quarter worth $162,464,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 2,392,800 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 423.5% during the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,788,111 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $139,183,000 after buying an additional 2,255,529 shares in the last quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 34.9% in the 2nd quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 5,943,074 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $288,833,000 after buying an additional 1,538,560 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 5,249.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,341,335 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $66,959,000 after acquiring an additional 1,316,261 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FCX. StockNews.com downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $43.72 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $46.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.33, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.04 and a 1-year high of $55.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.82 billion, a PE ratio of 31.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.91.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 21.90%.

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.