MetLife Investment Management LLC Has $18.65 Million Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

MetLife Investment Management LLC cut its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 2.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 373,523 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 9,538 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $18,646,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 1,392,494 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 5.1% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 11,028,452 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $536,038,000 after purchasing an additional 530,676 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,343,109 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $502,675,000 after purchasing an additional 56,499 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,223,038 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $410,494,000 after buying an additional 127,251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Wealth Planning LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 34.9% during 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 period. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on FCX. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. UBS Group raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

FCX stock opened at $43.75 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $46.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $46.99. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.04 and a fifty-two week 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 has a market capitalization of $62.87 billion, a PE ratio of 31.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.91.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $6.79 billion during 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.39 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.51 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.90%.

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.