Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Shares Purchased by Beech Hill Advisors Inc.

Beech Hill Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 51,375 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 1,575 shares during the quarter. Beech Hill Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $1,956,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% during the third quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $595,702,000 after purchasing an additional 11,687,982 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,279,517 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $162,964,000 after acquiring an additional 2,515,103 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,348,522,000 after acquiring an additional 2,366,187 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted 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 purchasing an additional 2,255,529 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,392,494 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 0.2 %

FCX traded up $0.08 on Thursday, reaching $40.11. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,330,717 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,271,415. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.26 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $41.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $44.43. The company has a market capitalization of $57.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.87.

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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.39 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.90%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.42.

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.