Hilltop National Bank Reduces Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Hilltop National Bank lowered its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 17.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,371 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 715 shares during the quarter. Hilltop National Bank’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $128,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Deane Retirement Strategies Inc. raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Deane Retirement Strategies Inc. now owns 47,144 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,357,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 20,777 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,037,000 after acquiring an additional 214 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 4,577 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $228,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares in the last quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 11,681 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $560,000 after acquiring an additional 231 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Prospera Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,548 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 234 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FCX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com lowered Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.96.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

FCX stock opened at $38.99 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $56.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.87. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.26 and a 1 year high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.33 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $42.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $44.74.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. The firm 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 period last year, the business posted $0.39 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This is an increase from Freeport-McMoRan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.