Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Shares Bought by Wellington Management Group LLP

Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 237.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 9,218,518 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,486,011 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $351,041,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.7% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 164,640 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $8,219,000 after buying an additional 14,501 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the 3rd quarter worth about $754,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,388,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,684,393 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $84,085,000 after purchasing an additional 66,699 shares during the period. Finally, Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 311,555 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $11,864,000 after purchasing an additional 18,852 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE:FCX opened at $38.09 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.98 and a twelve month high of $55.24. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $38.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.92.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. Equities research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.26%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FCX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $48.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.04.

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.